"Home for Hari Raya" to be Adapted into a Screenplay and Filmed

My Leap Year just took a leap forward after meeting someone new, Frederick Lewis, a professor of film/video at Ohio University who contacted me last week regarding the possible filming of one of short stories. We discussed on the phone what they were looking for and I clarified which book he had read the story from—it was the original collection of Lovers and Strangers (1993 Heinemann Asia) that they had at their library (just as I had blogged about), and not the 2009 Popular Reader's Choice Award winning Lovers and Strangers Revisited (2008, MPH) 

Lewis, who has received numerous grants, awards and nominations for his independent documentaries, has also received praise from film festivals for the full-length feature Trailerpark based on a short story collection by acclaimed author Russell Banks, which was made by 70 of his students for an advanced narrative production class. 

Lewis had previously brought some Ohio University students to Kuala Lumpur a few summers ago, and, coincidentally, to Sarawak, on the island of Borneo where I happen to live, though we never met.  He told me via email and also on the phone that he is trying to bring students back to Malaysia in December 2012, during their break, to shoot a short film.  He said that my stories from Lovers and Strangers have come up in their research and conversation while looking for a short story to adapt into a screenplay and film.  

After discussing what he was looking for, I suggested that "Home for Hari Raya" instead of their original choice "Mat Salleh" might be a better fit.  So I sent him the link from Istanbul Review, which had published it online in May 2011 (I blogged about that too) and the link to the story behind the story.
Four days after receiving the revised Lovers and Strangers Revisited version of my story, Lewis emailed and said, "My students love 'Home for Hari Raya'.  They are going to begin work on adapting it into a screenplay."   He then added, "The story contains all of the elements we agreed we wanted more than 6 months ago when we started the search."
He said the screenplay has been assigned to OU student Margaret Babington, who will be contacting me as the screenplay progresses, while Jeremy Parolini, who is doing a degree in Media Management, will be the producer. Lewis will begin working on the Education Abroad proposal with a goal of shooting this in Malaysia next December.  This will involve working out the logistics—how much the trip will cost each student, where they will stay, and where they will shoot.
"The next 3-4 months will determine whether we get our proposal approved and can recruit students for the production phase," he added.  For some of the students and their parents, it'll be a dilemma, since it may be the first time they'll spend Christmas away from their families—half way around the world in Malaysia.  But it's too good of an opportunity to miss, not to mention that, well, this is the tropics and the tropics trump Ohio winters every time!
My fingers are also crossed.  Although this may not be Hollywood calling, I'm still looking forward to working with Frederick Lewis and this team from Ohio University.  They will be liaising with UiTM in Shah Alam and working with the local film industry, including, possibly, Amir Muhammad, who met with Lewis during his earlier trip to Kuala Lumpur.  That would be cool since I first met Amir when he was stringing at the New Strait Times back when Lovers and Strangers was originally published 18 years ago.
The fact that I grew up in Ohio and attended Miami University (in the same MAC conference), gives the story—about three Malay sisters returning home for Hari Raya following the death of their father—an interesting twist for Ohio University, or as Lewis stated, "A very pleasant bonus!"
Not a bad way to end 2011 and kick off 2012!                  —Borneo Expat Writer

 *Here's the link to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia, and to the French translation of Lovers and Strangers Revisited Trois autres Malaisie.  Thanks!