Lauren Kate's Top 5 Surprises from the 'Fallen' Movie Set
May 20, 2014 · from the Word & Film archive
Lauren Kate's Fallen — the gothic YA romance about reform-school student Luce and the fallen angel who has loved her across centuries — has sold north of ten million copies. Now it's a movie, directed by Oscar-winner Scott Hicks (Shine) and shot largely in Hungary. Kate visited the set and shared her five biggest surprises with us.
1. Sword & Cross is real. The production built her reform school into a working Hungarian estate, gargoyles and all — 'like my Google-image mood board got a construction budget.' 2. Nobody asks the author where to put the camera. And, she admits, that's healthy. 3. Wings are a physics problem. The stunt rigging for Daniel's reveal took longer to engineer than any scene in the book took to write.
4. Actors know the characters better than you do. Addison Timlin quizzed her on Luce's backstory details Kate had forgotten writing. 5. Watching your dialogue get cut doesn't hurt. Much.
The film reached theaters in 2016; the catalog entry for the adaptation has the full credits. Kate's verdict on the experience: 'Writing is control. Film is surrender — with better catering.'
