Costco Connection - December 2011

arts & entertainment

CC: ;e Help seems like a
uniquely American story, but it
works internationally.

TT: What it comes down to is relationships and courage and integrity and speaking up. ;ose are universal themes. ;at stu; transcends being purely American.

We’re going to Arab countries,
where the book has been really embraced.
People are speaking up, or dream about it,
everywhere around the world. What’s great
about ;e Help is, it’s not leaders or people in
power doing the speaking; it’s regular women
standing up for what’s right. I think
that’s inspiring to people, no matter
where they live.

didn’t know we really had something going until we were driving around Mississippi together, Kathryn and me, and her publisher called and said, “Your book’s debuting [in] the top 25 on [the] New York Times best-seller list.” We did what any Southerners would do: We pulled o; to the nearest truck stop and bought a six-pack. We sat in the car ... and I think it ;nally dawned on us, we might have more than an indie movie on our hands here. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

I’m an overnight success that took 17 years, and I did it without a single robot in my movie.

Buyers’
picks
CC: How did you approach adapting the
novel for the big screen?

TT: I had nobody, no money, no input, no deadlines, no pressure when I started adapting Kathryn’s book. It was just me and my instincts working at a leisurely pace. I wrote that first screenplay long; it was over 200 pages long, and it was pretty much every scene in the novel. I did it for the love of the material. I knew I needed to drop 80 or 90 pages, so I started looking at it scene by scene and asking, “What makes this scene so special?” Sometimes it was only a look or a glance, sometimes a joke, sometimes a location. So I started cherry-picking those jewels and relocating those tiny treasures into scenes that had to be there to move the story along.

Minnie (left) and Aibileen speak in secrecy with Skeeter about their experiences working for white families.

Kraft Philadelphia Recipe Collection and Crock-Pot Recipe Collection, from Publications International Ltd. I love to cook. These five-ring binder cookbooks are easy to use and have more than 500 recipes each. They lie flat and have tabs to help you navigate the cookbook. Both include photos of the final dishes and cover everything from appetizers to desserts—and all courses in between. —Josh Lilly, inventory control specialist, books

CC: Were you the ;rst choice to direct?

TT: People loved Kathryn’s book and they loved my script, so I had a studio, DreamWorks, and a producer, Chris Columbus, who stood behind me. Still, this kind of movie doesn’t look good on paper—it’s a period piece about race relations with an all-female cast and a nobody who’s writing and directing it. ;is is a losing proposition by the numbers. I still believe everyone at the studio took a shot of tequila the day they wired our budget to that Mississippi bank.

CC: ;e Help is a di;erent role for you.

ES: De;nitely, but I was surrounded by people on this movie who love—love—life and love to laugh. Very easily a story like ;e Help can veer into super-seriousness or sadness or heaviness. I mean, I’ve had some really [terrible] days in my life, but there’s never been a single one where I haven’t also laughed. Tate is a director who recognizes that.

Fiction

Micro, by Michael Crichton. For decades, Crichton’s novels have piqued readers’ imaginations and challenged the limits of reality. In Micro, Crichton explores the realm of nanotechnology as four graduate students—with only their scientific knowledge and wits to protect them—are cast into the hostile conditions of a rain forest. As always, Crichton blurs the line between sci-fi and reality in a pulse-pounding journey.

—Jeffrey Purtell inventory control specialist, books

The Costco Connection

The Help book, DVD and Blu-ray Disc are available in most Costco locations.

CC: One of the powerful messages of ;e Help is how storytelling can be liberating.

ES: Yeah, totally! Stories are healing. ;e reason we all fall in love with art, the reason it exists, is because everyone has a story and a purpose and something to share. Everyone should share their stories in some way—write a story, paint a picture, sing a song. Whatever’s closest to your heart, do that. ;e Help is good proof that stories matter. C

Red Mist, by Patricia Cornwell. In the 19th Kay Scarpetta novel, the forensic expert is in Georgia investigating the death of her murdered deputy chief, Jack Fielding. A visit to the Georgia Prison for Women yields information from a well-informed inmate that will shed light on this and seemingly unrelated murders across the country. If you have never read Cornwell, but are a fan of the TV series CSI, this will likely be right up your alley.