'She Rides Shotgun' Author and Director Discuss Adapting a Dark Fairy Tale For the Screen

Director Nick Rowland and Jordan Harper sat down with The Film Maven to deconstruct adaptation and why this movie hits hard today

'She Rides Shotgun' Author and Director Discuss Adapting a Dark Fairy Tale For the Screen

You’re probably asking, “Why is this paywalled?” Paid subscribers are the backbone of The Film Maven and becoming one shows support for independent journalism, as well as female- and disabled-created content. If you want to read the full story consider becoming a paid-subscriber. It also allows me to write really fun articles. And becoming a paid subscriber gives you access to The Trade, my examination and exploration of topics in the entertainment industry, my Popcorn Disability articles on disabled representation in film, and more. I also cross post these over at The Film Maven Patreon where you can subscribe, at the same price, without supporting Substack itself. So consider becoming a paid subscriber today!

Read more about the history of disability in film by pre-ordering my upcoming book, Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies. I not only expand on what you’re reading here, but examine the stereotypes, tropes, and the good, bad (and really ugly) of disabled movies. Preorder the book by clicking this link! Send me proof of your preorder and I’ll give you a paid subscription to The Film Maven for one year!

**The ending of She Rides Shotgun is discussed below**

Adaptation is a tricky needle to thread. On the one hand, pre-existing material lays out the pertinent structure of the story a screenwriter needs to tell. But said screenwriter is forced to please two audiences: one with a deep love for the source material and one that might not know of its existence. As if that’s not hard enough, they have to translate written material to a moving medium like film, requiring things like narrative condensing. Author and screenwriter Jordan Harper has been on both sides of the desk, both before and after the adaptation of his book She Rides Shotgun hit screens earlier this month. (It’s a movie I adore and you can read my review here.)