David Koepp in the Daily Bruin

(Written by Jake Tracer, DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF, jtracer@media.ucla.edu)

It’s ironic that arguably the most successful screenwriter to come out of UCLA has made a name for himself by writing a style of screenplay that UCLA doesn’t teach. But that’s Hollywood.

David Koepp is known in the film industry for writing blockbuster hits such as “Spider-Man,” “Mission: Impossible” and the first two installments of the “Jurassic Park” trilogy. What distinguishes his writing is that it’s dominated by screenplays adapted from previously published material. Of the 16 feature-length films Koepp has written, 10 are adapted. And that’s the way he likes it.

“It’s helpful,” Koepp said in a phone interview, referring to the source material from which he writes. “You have the benefits of someone else’s months of thinking.”

Koepp’s newest film, “Secret Window,” which he also directed, opens Friday. Based on a Stephen King novella entitled, “Secret Window, Secret Garden,” the film tells the story of Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp), a horror-fiction author whose writing doesn’t seem all that different than King’s. Living alone in a secluded cabin while working out a messy divorce, Rainey is accused of plagiarism by a mysterious man (John Tuturro) who wants Rainey to change the ending of one of his stories.

Like Koepp’s career, the film is largely concerned with the source and originality of writing. In no way is Koepp a Rainey-like character, but the self-deprecating, humorous tone with which the film handles an early scene of Rainey trying to write could only have been created by another writer.

“It’s all pretty much sitting alone in a room staring at a screen,” Koepp said. “That solitude is interesting to me.”

That very seclusion, combined with the escalating importance of proving his story’s originality, slowly drives Rainey to insanity. What may separate Rainey from a writer like Koepp, though, is his lack of self-discipline. Throughout the film, Rainey avoids facing his work by taking long naps on his couch.

“(Koepp) writes 17 drafts,” said Richard Walter, a UCLA screenwriting professor. “He has tremendous talent, but what’s more important, he really has discipline. He doesn’t get rattled.”

Walter taught Koepp in one of the three advanced screenwriting workshops required of undergraduate film students, in which, over the course of an academic year, they write a complete, original feature-length screenplay. Walter hailed Koepp’s project, “Fat City Upside Down,” as an “enormously entertaining and professional” work, but Koepp gained more success outside the world of original screenplays.

Still, UCLA does not offer any classes in writing screenplay adaptations. In fact Walter frequently jokes during his lectures that the only thing writers owe to stories they’re adapting is “nothing.”

“You ought to preserve the tone and the intent of (the original),” Koepp said. “But it’s a miracle a book ever gets made into a movie, because they’re so different.”

Koepp considers the process of writing adaptations a highly specialized ability, and while he now prefers the process to the process of writing original screenplays, he doesn’t regret his background in original writing, nor does he think UCLA should include adaptation classes in its screenwriting curriculum.

“You do adaptations when you acquire a set of skills,” he said. “When you’re a young writer, all you have is your voice.”

Koepp’s voice was forever changed after the release of his “Jurassic Park” adaptation in 1993, which was based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name. The film grossed $357 million, more than $100 million more than the next-highest grossing film that year, and propelled Koepp onto the A-list of screenwriting adaptation specialists. In the 10 years since the release of “Jurassic Park,” four of Koepp’s eight big-screen adaptations grossed over $100 million.

“He has had great success doing big-budget Hollywood movies,” Walter said.

But it was the absence of a big budget that convinced Koepp to double as the director of “Secret Window.” More specifically, the film’s intimate setting and close relationship to writing within the story caught his eye.

“It’s kind of binary, either a one or a zero,” Koepp said of directing. “Either you see it and know what to do with it, or you don’t (direct it).”

While directing his own words may not be an entirely new experience (Koepp also directed “The Trigger Effect” in 1996 and “Stir of Echoes” in 1999, neither of which were very popular, at the box office or otherwise), the high-profile cast of “Secret Window” may launch a secondary career for Koepp. According to Walter, the transition from writing to directing is not an extremely difficult one.

“The most over-appreciated job in the history of the universe is the film director,” Walter said. “Directing is a party compared to writing.”

Koepp may be interested in writing big-budget Hollywood films, but he has little interest in directing them because of their intricate complexity. Instead, he wants to direct movies like “Secret Window,” which are driven more by characters’ inner emotions than their outer threats. As a writer, Koepp also cites the physical strain of directing as a major deterrent, and he doesn’t plan on quitting his day job to become a full-time director any time soon.

“(Directing is) easier mentally, but it’s harder physically,” he said, pausing for a moment to think before continuing. “I will always define myself as a writer.”

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