"Adaptation is a bit like translation. We can nit-pick certain words in translation, but are the..."

“Adaptation is a bit like translation. We can nit-pick certain words in translation, but are the essential narrative elements conveyed, including tone? Chekhov’s “The Lady with a Dog” has also been translated at “The Lady with the Little Dog,” “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” and so on. But it’s always a dog, not a pig, and never a flying pig with a sub-machine gun.”

- From some advice I gave my screenwriting students, who were then adapting public domain short stories. They also had a habit of introducing gun play into stories that didn’t need it.