Hollywood Can’t Figure Out How to Adapt Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ – Armessa Movie News

Author Donna Tartt was just 29 years old when she published The Secret History, and it was the first novel she ever wrote. It is a hauntingly beautiful story about six college students who are undeniably flawed but also frighteningly relatable. The Secret History has gathered many fans since its release back in 1992, but most of them are wondering: where is its movie counterpart? Although some authors are reluctant to sell the rights of their books to filmmakers, Donna Tartt was never opposed to The Secret History becoming a movie, so why hasn’t it been adapted yet? Well, in truth, there have been numerous attempts to get this novel adapted to screen, but thus far, every single one of these attempts have fallen through. This fact isn’t necessarily a bad one — the original integrity of The Secret History remains intact and Donna Tartt’s delectably rich writing stays pure without being converted into a screenplay. But although The Secret History is untouched by filmmakers, there is no denying that the story would be a wonderful one to come to life on screen.

‘The Secret History’ Takes Place at the Fictional Hampden College

Set in New England on the East Coast of the United States at the fictitious location of Hampden College, main character Richard Papen navigates his college life with curiosity and sharp observation. A large percentage of The Secret History is set on the Hampden College campus, and Donna Tartt never fails to detail the intricacies of the lavish Vermont landscape. But these detailed intricacies aren’t just used to create a taste of the book’s dark academia aesthetic. Truthfully, the detailing of the changing weather and landscape are used to add to the book’s sense of suspense, they are used to enhance the melodrama of Richard’s moods, and they are used to enhance the feeling of foreboding — that something is about to happen, but we never really know what. This heavy tension that threads itself throughout the book would be thrilling to see on screen, depicted by the wistful yet spooky landscape of Hampden college and its surroundings.

Miramax Attempted an Adaptation With Gwyneth Paltrow and Her Brother, Jake Paltrow

Director Sofia Coppola has a knack for showcasing the beauty of characters while also revealing what lies beneath that beauty. Coppola also has a gift for contouring moody landscapes that tell just as much of the story as the characters do, so she’d be a perfect director for The Secret History film. But of course, this is all just a dream. And it has been the dream for The Secret History fans and for many filmmakers and actors throughout the past 30 years, including director Alan J. Pakula, who seized film rights for Warner Brothers when The Secret History was first published. Celebrated American writer and journalist Joan Didion had signed on to write the screenplay, and Australian director Scott Hicks was ready to direct. However, Pakula tragically passed away in a car crash in 1998 and his movie plans for The Secret History never took off.

Then in 2002, Miramax made a deal with Gwyneth Paltrow and her brother Jake Paltrow, and they were to direct and produce The Secret History film. Of course, during this era, Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein was still regrettably respected in Hollywood. The Paltrow sibling’s project for The Secret History had a script in the making, but another death halted the project once more. Bruce Paltrow, father to Gwyneth and Jake, died in 2003, and the siblings’ plans for The Secret History movie were set aside.

Nowadays, Author Donna Tartt Steers Clear of Hollywood

In 2013, in conjunction with the release of Donna Tartt’s fourth novel The Goldfinch, Tartt’s longtime friend, former Bennington College classmate, and writer of the American Psycho novel, Bret Easton Ellis was planning to adapt The Secret History into a miniseries. Interestingly, the success of The Goldfinch won Donna Tartt the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and the novel was successfully developed into a film in 2019. But longtime Tartt fans were still wondering where the adaptation of The Secret History was, and Bret Easton Ellis’s dreams for the miniseries fizzled out due to his own work commitments. Although The Goldfinch was adapted to screen, the unpredictability of Hollywood has led Donna Tartt to disengage from the media. In 2013, she told Town and Country Magazine “I’m a bit of a lone wolf. I don’t give interviews or do publicity unless I have a book out–too distracting. My desk is where the real work happens.”

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Without a Screen Adaptation, The Legacy of ‘The Secret History’ Novel is Preserved

Although Donna Tartt describes her characters and settings with such rich detail that it would fulfill the dreams of film casters, set designers, makeup artists, actors, and film directors alike, there will always be the more ambiguous components of The Secret History that would struggle to be adapted onto the big screen. The inner musings of Richard Papen’s psyche, which more often than not resemble the darker sides of human nature, are conveyed so intimately by Tartt’s language that the reader’s relationship with Richard feels extremely private and personal. You can’t help but sympathize with him. The same goes for the rest of the college group, whose strong proclivity for drinking comes as a result of their grappling with things like anxiety, unrequited love, and murder. Of course, these things can be portrayed by the right actors, but Donna Tartt’s telling of human nature in The Secret History feels instinctive and experienced, and it is tough to curate that level of sensibility.

The Secret History is much more than a story rendered within a dark academia aesthetic with six college students engaging in mischief spurred on by their misguided youthful invincibility. Donna Tartt’s story is deeper than that. It is about the consequences of fear and ignorance. It is about the lengths a person will go for love, the mistakes a person will make in pursuit of love. It is about the uncertainty that comes with being young, the anxiety that surfaces when we think about the future. It is about friendship, devotion, and loyalty. But at the story’s heart is Richard Papen, a young man who, despite his nihilist efforts, is undeniably intuitive and caring and hopeful. He’s insecure, and he wants to fit in, but that doesn’t make him any less human. And really, that’s what The Secret History is about — being human.