Rachelle Atalla is no stranger to success, with her 2022 debut novel The Pharmacist shortlisted for fiction book of the year at Scotland’s National Book Awards. Now the dystopian thriller’s feature adaptation is in late-stage funded development with the BFI and Compact Pictures.
Atalla says being so close to the book, set in a nuclear bunker, meant the adaptation was something “to grapple with”, adding: “That was a big learning curve, but I’ve loved it.”
The Scottish Egyptian writer, who lives in Glasgow, studied pharmacy before taking up creative writing as a hobby. “It was the first time I realised I was actually passionate about something,” says Atalla. She caught the bug on a screenwriting course with Screen Scotland.
Short film Trifle, which she wrote, followed in 2020, before novel The Pharmacist was published in 2022. She has since pursued publishing and screen work in tandem, including the script for BBC Three comedy short Pineapple. Atalla plans to adapt her second novel, thriller Thirsty Animals, for television, now under option with TOD Productions for STV. “We’ve done a pilot and are keeping everything crossed for that,” she says.
Atalla is also co-scripting eco-thriller The Sands Of Sarasvati with Finnish filmmaker Antti-Jussi Annila, based on Risto Isomaki’s bestseller. Having a bit more distance from the source material is something she appreciates on the project: “You can hit the ground running quicker when you’re adapting someone else’s book.”
She adds: “I love the collaborative nature of film. I get quite lonely as a novelist, whereas when I’m screenwriting, I love working with a team.”
Atalla is also adapting survival story We Are Together Because by Kerry Andrew, and in September will take part in a writers’ room for TV project Anthrax Island. Suzanne Reid produces, and the show’s initial development is supported by Screen Scotland. Atalla is also working on TV pilot Down To The Bone, about a woman hired to exhume bodies in a graveyard at risk of collapsing into the sea. “I’m a huge fan of Twin Peaks and this is my homage.”
Contact: Nick Marston, Curtis Brown
No comments yet