by FilmInk Staff
Novelisations of movies used to be fairly common – novelisations that come out almost 20 years after the movie, not so much. But that’s what Stephen Vagg has done with his 2007 cult romantic comedy All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. He’s adapted his film script into a novel – a novella, rather – which has just been published.
“Yeah, it took me some time to get around to it,” laughs Vagg. “I intended to write a novelisation but it wound up as a novella rather than a novel because there wasn’t enough story. So, it’s a novella-isation. But hopefully people will enjoy the read.”
Vagg was prompted to write the book after penning the script for the film All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane. This film, currently screening in cinemas, is the spiritual sequel to All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane.
“I enjoyed writing about those characters and the world and wanted to do more of it,” Vagg says. “I’d always dreamed of writing a novel and figured that it might be easier if I based one on something I’d already written. So, I adapted All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane into a novella. I soon realised that there’s no such thing as an easy book! It was hard work but a lot of fun.”
All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane tells the story of two best friends, Anthea and Michael (played memorably in the 2007 film by Charlotte Gregg and Matt Zeremes), who are young lawyers in Brisbane. When Anthea contemplates leaving their hometown to move overseas, it forces her and Michael to re-evaluate their feelings for each other.
The book tells essentially the same story as the film, but with a key difference – it is set in 1998. Why was this done?
“That’s when I lived the life of the characters,” says Vagg, a former property lawyer from Brisbane. “In 1999, I got into film school in Sydney and ran away to the circus, i.e. the film and TV industry where I’ve been ever since. It was also the year I met my wife, Louise Alston, who directed All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane and All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane. So, 1998 was the last year I was both a civilian and single. Setting the novella in that year meant I didn’t have to do any research as to what characters did for a living and how they socialised.”
“Also – and this is dating me, I know – 1998 was when I first wrote the film script for All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. I later turned it into a stage play, then back into a film script and now a novella. Every reiteration is very different. Please don’t try to track the continuity!”
As mentioned, Vagg wrote and produced the film All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, which is currently enjoying sell-out sessions in Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle. We asked him if he would consider adapting that movie into a novel.
“No plans at the moment but never say never,” says Vagg. “Look, if I’d been more organised, I’d have the novelisation of All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane ready to go now instead of All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane which is 20 years old! Other work got in the way. But people who like the movies should enjoy the novella.”
All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane, the novella, is available on Amazon https://amzn.asia/d/01PFJWEG
