Adapting anything from page to screen can be a daunting task, but it’s especially difficult when you’re turning a beloved children’s book like The One And Only Ivan into a Disney film. Screenwriter Mike White (School Rock) learned to have fun with the process of bringing the tale of a captive Silverback gorilla to life, and then he even got to act in it.
In anticipation of the film’s August 14 release on Disney+, White spoke to Screen Rant about why the character of Frankie fit him so well and what aspects of the screenplay deviated most from or otherwise enhanced parts of Katherine Applegate’s novel.
As the adapter of such a beloved book, though, what was the most difficult challenge to bring to the screen?
Mike White: I think you want to do service to the original. It's like people love the book and you don't want to disappoint them. You don't want to disappoint Katherine Applegate. So, you want to retain the spirit of the book, but at the same time, the book isn't [everything]. It needs to fulfill the expectations of an event movie, a Disney movie, and you have to fill in the plot. Give it a little bit more of a motor; fill in the world; give some more ancillary characters voices. That was mainly the challenge.
The book really delivers as far as emotion and the characters and wanting a happy ending for those characters, but you just have to make it into a movie. That's basically a challenge.
I know that Mack is different in the book than we see in the film. Why the change for Mack?
Mike White: I don't know how different he is. I think the thing that was complicated with that character was he needs to be complex. He can't just be a mustache-twirling villain, and I think he needs to reflect how the [are] audience today. A decade ago, some of the things that we feel about circuses and how they treat animals - it wasn't exactly in our consciousness in the same way it is now.
Mack, I think, reflects that. He's not a bad guy, but I think he comes to realize over the course of the movie that some of the decisions he's made, and the business he's created around these animals, isn't really doing them good. You need it to be a complex feeling. He's not just a bad guy, and he's obviously not a good guy. He needs to come to some kind of realization, and I think that that's what we were going for in the movie.
Was there anything in the book that didn't quite make it into the film, whether it be for time or any other reason?
Mike White: I'm really happy with where the movie ended up. It was a six year process; I started on it in 2014. So, it's been a long time. There's been many gestations, and at some point, I can't even remember all the different things that have been dropped by the side of the road. So, I'm really happy with the final product.
And especially once it was rendered. It was really different for me to be a part of a movie that was CGI. I would see it in the earlier stages, and I'd be like, "What is this?" because it's so primitive. And then when you finally see it and it's fully rendered, and all of the work that they've put in has come to life, you're like, "Wow, this was the movie that we were always hoping for." It's so cool.
As a writer, when you got the role of Frankie, did you like research that character specifically from the book? Or did you know what you wanted to do to play that character?
Mike White: Well, that character doesn't really have any dialogue in the book. That was one of the smaller characters that we kind of created. I think for me, it was more like, I'd written him as sort of a neurotic obsessive. And I think Thea just was like, "Who could be a neurotic obsessive?" and just looked across the desk for me, and was like, "Why don't you do it?"
Is that really how it went down?
Mike White: I don't know exactly how it went down, but it was just funny. I think as a screenwriter, after a while, you start wondering what you're doing there. Once most of the writing is done, you feel like you're just standing there being a backseat driver. I think it's fun to be able to wear a different hat and have something else to do, so you're not just bugging the director.
Can you talk to me about the voiceover experience? I don't know if that's your first time doing that or not.
Mike White: I mean, it was fun. For me, it was really fun to be in the sound booth with Danny DeVito and Helen Mirren and Angelina [Jolie] and Sam Rockwell. I was like, "Wow, this is the big leagues. These are the real actors."
It's such an impressive cast. I think that was like one of the things that really jumped out. When they get into the booth, is there room to improv?
Mike White: Yeah. And as the writer, I really felt free to - it's like, I'm not gonna be insulting anyone if I'm pitching on my own script. And we certainly encouraged the other actors to play around with it, because I think that you always find new stuff when you do that.
Can you talk to me about Thea as a filmmaker and her vision? I can see the passion that she had for the property on the screen; it really shined through. Can you talk to me about the collaboration process with her?
Mike White: Yeah. I mean, it was such a long collaboration from developing the script to watching her mount it and cast it, and all of the decisions that go into the CGI part of it. At one point, early on, I was like - because I've directed before - "Should I throw my hat in the ring and direct this?" And then four years later she's still trying to figure out how to move Ivan from one cage to the next, and I'm so glad. I do not have the exactitude and the perseverance to be doing what she was able to pull off.
Can you talk to me about who Frankie gets along with the best in Mack's zoo?
Mike White: That's a good question. I think he and Henrietta, Chaka Khan's character, have a love-hate relationship. I think he annoys her, and yet she also is his biggest fan. So, she pumps him up, and then he gets on her nerves.
What does Frankie think about going to live in the wild? What's his stance on it?
Mike White: I think at one point he says, "I was born in an aquarium. What is the wild to me?" But I've got to think that maybe being free of his ball and being able to just enjoy the ocean again would be a happy ending for Frankie.
Did you base your performance of Frankie on anybody in particular, or did you organically know what you wanted to do?
Mike White: Yeah, it was kind of on the page. And then I just added my special brand of anxiety to the work.
As the writer of the film, what scene for you was the most exciting to see come to life?
Mike White: The part that wasn't in the book was the prison escape, and that was kind of my idea. Because I was like, "This is kind of a prison movie." So, I think [it's] the moment where they realize that just leaving that mall isn't going to solve all of their problems. The idea that nature exists right outside their door is not really truthful. And so that sequence, I guess, I'm proud of - that it seemed to fit into the architecture of the adaptation.
