Harper Collins Publishers; Everett Some stories refuse to stay on the page. The Hollywood Reporter’s Beyond the Book column explores what happens when books make the leap to screen and beyond — unpacking what changed, how it was done and why it matters with the creatives who made it.
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“I have a problem keeping my mouth shut,” Meg Cabot admits to The Hollywood Reporter, before the author reveals that she has already seen scripts for The Princess Diaries 3.
She’s seen several different iterations, in fact, of the franchise’s anticipated next installment, in which Anne Hathaway will reprise her role as Mia Thermopolis, Queen of Genovia.
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“I read a script, and it was amazing. I told them not to send anymore, because I love it so much,” Cabot quips. “They don’t like it when you tell people what’s gonna happen yet. So I was like, ‘Better not send me any more scripts!’”
For the third installment, Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians, Joy Ride) will direct the feature. Debra Martin Chase, one of the producers of the original, returns to produce. Naia Cucukov, who is Lim’s producing partner, is an executive producer, as is Melissa Stack.
“The fairy tale continues,” Hathaway wrote on her Instagram back when the third film was initially announced.
Discussions to return to The Princess Diaries universe never really stopped, Cabot tells THR. “It has been in discussions for a really long time. There have been a lot of scripts, and I think this one that I most recently read is my favorite. Fingers crossed that’s the one they’re going to use, but it’s a really fun idea, and I’m 100 percent behind it.”
Cabot declines to comment further about the film, but did confirm she’s “very happy” with what she’s read thus far and teases there were “some book things that were involved in the last script.”
Despite having to stay tight-lipped on the threequel, Cabot is happy to talk freely when it comes to her latest project, which revisits the first chapter of her popular franchise more than 25 years after it was first published.
The author has penned 12 core novels in the Princess Diaries book series following “frizzy-haired freshman” Mia Thermopolis, whose world is turned upside down after learning that her father is the prince of the fictional European nation Genovia, making her a real-life princess.
Originally published in 2000, Cabot lovingly revisits the character with The Princess Diaries: The Graphic Novel, hitting shelves June 30. The same story set in the ’90s is retold, but this time with accompanying art by Bethany Crandall.
“I’ve only seen the sketches. I haven’t seen the final product. I have not held it in my hand,” Cabot admits in her first interview for the upcoming novel. “I spent a couple months adapting the book, trying to get all the most important parts into the graphic novel,” she said. “I think readers who love the books for nostalgia [and] who maybe were alive in the ’90s are going to really get a lot out of this.”
Below, Cabot discusses her experience attending DC University to learn how to write a graphic novel, why the story was originally rejected by publishers, reflects on the beloved 2001 film and her take on today’s modern romance landscape.
Meg Cabot Michael Blades At what point was it decided to adapt your story into a graphic novel, and why explore it in this way?
I had done a graphic novel for DC Comics, Black Canary, an adaptation for middle-grade readers. The editor at HarperCollins was like, “Hey, why don’t we do that for Princess Diaries?” It had never even occurred to me that would be something anyone would want to do. I was like, “Oh my god, yes!” To write a graphic novel for DC, they actually sent me to a graphic novel writing university. They call it DC University. For two days, all these different writers learned how to write graphic novels. I had no idea that graphic novels are based on a script, and then the artist draws the pictures from what the writer says to do in the scripts. So I learned how to do that. I was like, “If I’m going to do Princess Diaries, I have to adapt the entire book into a script, but it can’t be the movie script.” The two stories are different. They’re both really good in my opinion, but the one we wanted to do was the book. I spent a couple months trying to get all the most important parts from the book into the graphic novel. They auditioned a few illustrators, and Bethany had the best vision that was closest to the way I pictured the book in my head. So they hired her and sent her the script, and she started doing the drawings.
How did you land on how you wanted to stylize the graphics?
Every single panel that you see in the book is a panel that I told her how it should look. What the character should be wearing, what they’re saying. She did samples to make sure that her vision was on par with ours. I really loved her Mia, and Fat Louie was amazing, so we told her to go ahead. Every week, I would get drawings based on the script that I had read, and it was so fun to see it in a visual form. The actual story’s set in New York. It’s not the one that Garry Marshall did [for the film] in San Francisco. In the story, originally, her dad is alive. He’s not dead. Disney kills off the [parent] every single time in their movies; that’s just what they do. They told me because they wanted to give the grandmother more lines, and Julie Andrews was gonna play the grandmother, and I was like, “Oh my god, yeah, totally kill the dad. I don’t care! I want more Julie Andrews!” But for this, we really got to play around with the dad.
HarperCollins Are there any new things added to the story for the graphic novel version?
It is the same exact story, to the point that it is set in 1999. We thought [of] how could we update this for today’s readers, and there’s no way because this is the world that Mia was conceived in. She lived in 1999 Greenwich Village with dial-up, and she really, really wants a beeper! I think readers who do love the books for nostalgia [and those] who maybe were alive in the ‘90s are going to really get a lot out of this.
Do you envision adapting the rest of the series as graphic novels?
I certainly would, but right now I’m also doing a graphic novel series for Harper about a baby who solves crimes. The first book comes out in September, so if they want to do more Princess Diaries, they have to get in line with Detective Baby!
What do you remember most vividly about the process of writing that first book, which was released in 2000?
I wrote it on spec for fun. I had the idea of a girl who’s really upset because her mom is dating her teacher. That was happening to me at the time. I was 30, but I was still very upset about my mom dating one of my former teachers. (Laughs.) I started writing and nothing happened to the girl, so I knew I had to add more. I made her turn out to be a princess, as a joke between me and my mom. My agent was like, “I think this is a kids’ book,” and I said, “Really?” I would love to tell you that she sent it around and it immediately got snapped up but it got rejected by basically every publisher in New York. Whitney Houston’s production company snapped it up. Debra Martin Chase was the producer, and they loved the idea of it, and wanted to make it a movie before it even got published. So I remember we finally got HarperCollins, and told the editor, “It’s good you bought this because they’re gonna make a movie out of it.” The editor said, “They do that to every book. Don’t think that they’re actually gonna make this. It doesn’t mean anything.” I was like, “Oh, OK,” because I didn’t know any better. Then it did, and I was like, “Ha! I told you! Now let’s do 16 more.” (Laughs.)
The character Mia’s voice was such a distinct one in the young adult genre at the time. What was it about the diary narrative style that made it the best way to tell her story?
When I found out it was a kids’ book, I [asked] a friend’s kid that I knew, “What kind of books do you like?” I took her to the bookstore, and every single book she showed me was a diary book. She loved Catherine, Called Birdy, which is by Karen Cushman, Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal, the Dear America series… I was like, “Kids like diary books. I like diary books. So this is gonna be easy.” As far as Mia’s personality, I was actually working at NYU at the time, and I think Mia adopted quite a bit of their attitude. They’re little New Yorker kids who are in schools of the arts, very dramatic in a lovely way, and that’s how Mia was born.
You talked about how the book was originally rejected, and have previously spoken about criticism over it not suitable for children. What did you make of that at the time?
There were not a ton of kids books that were pure entertainment. There were some, especially fantasy and sci-fi. Tamora Pierce was really popular then, and obviously Judy Blume, but there was this feeling that kids’ books had to be educational and have a moral lesson. I feel like my books are educational, and they do have a moral lesson, but it’s kind of buried under a lot of snarky, candy-coated irony. Quite a few editors missed that part of it. It was immediately snapped up in England, so Europe caught on before America. Then we finally started getting some play here in the U.S., and of course, Harry Potter then burst onto the scene and was proof that kids are willing to read things that are just fun, and so are their parents. That’s what they want. It was something I was kind of mad [about], because I’m like, “Why do you think the kids don’t want to be entertained?” Clearly, they do. It’s a never-ending battle.
At what point did you see the conversation start to turn?
The first book did not get great reviews. I didn’t have a whole lot of hope. And then I went to the first book signing — I will never forget — and I walked in, and there were, I don’t know how many, 10-year-old girls dressed as princesses. I was like, “Oh my God!” It was just book signing after book signing, packed rooms of mostly girls — there were some boys — and a lot of parents who just were into it. That’s when maybe people started catching on.
The night before the [movie] premiere, Debra Martin Chase, the producer, was like, “Hey, let’s just go see it in the theater before we see the premiere and see what the audience’s reaction is.” So my husband and I and her went, and every single showing was sold out. We couldn’t get into a theater. I just remember Debra arguing with the people there, like, “Can we just go in and look? And they said, “No, you need to get a ticket. It’s a fire hazard.” It was hilarious! So we had an even bigger clue that something was going on, and it exploded after that. It was pretty fun.
Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries. Everett The film helped introduce some audiences to your books. Are you able to watch the film with a separate lens? And despite them being different, in what ways do you think the books and the film complement each other?
I love the enthusiasm for Genovia, which is a country I made up. I hadn’t read a script before, and I didn’t want to because I didn’t want to intrude on what Garry Marshall was doing. I totally trusted Garry and his vision, and I’m so glad I did. I would hear little things about what was happening. I knew he wanted to film in San Francisco because that’s where his little granddaughters, who are in the movie, lived.
But when I was at the premiere, and that guy in the movie stands up, when he starts singing the Genovian national anthem? I was like, “Oh my God, they wrote a national anthem for a country I made up?” That was such an amazing feeling. They just took it, and they ran with it. A lot of people think it’s a real country. Kids try to write reports on it, and they’ll contact me and say, “I can’t find the gross national product of Genovia.” (Laughs.) It was great to see all that, and of course, just such a huge pleasure to meet Julie Andrews and Garry Marshall. I sound like a broken record, but the whole thing was just so much fun, and everybody was so nice.
I’m so excited there is a third movie. I read a script, and it was amazing. I told them not to send anymore, because I love it so much. I have a problem keeping my mouth shut. They don’t like it when you tell people what’s gonna happen yet, so I was like, “Better not send me any more scripts!”
“I totally trusted Garry and his vision, and I’m so glad I did,” Cabot says of the director (pictured on set of the 2001 film.) Everett They have quite their fair share of novels to pull inspiration from. I know that there’s differences, but is there anything from the novels that you think could work or be incorporated in some way for the new film?
I’m not gonna say anything that’s gonna give away too much. (Laughs.) The answer is I’m very happy with what I’ve read so far, but there’s definitely some book things that were involved in the last script I read.
How do you think today’s readers may experience the series differently or similarly to the first generation of fans?
You know, I don’t know. I can tell you some of the advanced reviews that I’ve seen [of the graphic novel] are like, “I don’t think that children today are going to understand the technology of the ‘90s.” I’m like, are you insane? The technology of the ’90s is like sticks and racks compared to what we have now. Kids are often totally underestimated [with] how much they can understand. Kids can understand the very complex magic that goes on in Harry Potter, and yet people are worried they’re not going to understand dial-up? Stop underestimating kids’ intelligence [and] know they have amazing imaginations. They also can ask their parents if there’s something that’s not clear. I have total faith that kids today are going to understand it just as well as kids did in the 1990s. Kids are really smart, and I think people don’t give them the benefit of the doubt.
It’s interesting that all these years later, there is still criticism when it comes to what kids like and don’t like, no matter how much the generations change.
I totally agree. I think that they’re fine, and they’re gonna enjoy it. So, we’ll see. Obviously, there will be some things they won’t understand. If they went back to read the books, it would be really hard to figure out why Mia insists on giving her crush at the time for Christmas a VCR with a built-in TV. Now I can understand kids not knowing why that was such an amazing gift in 1999. That was all I wanted.
From left: Larry Miller, Hathaway and Andrews. Everett What surprises you the most about The Princess Diaries’ longevity, and what is it about Mia that you think continues to resonate so much decades later?
I think that for a book that’s about a girl who finds out she’s a princess, it’s very relatable. She’s a very relatable hero. The problems that she has, that kind of anxiety that you have when you’re not sure, and you’re not very confident about yourself, is how we all felt at 14. That is something that is universal, and people can relate to it. They sympathize with her because she really wants to do the right thing, but she doesn’t know how sometimes. Everybody’s been in that situation, but this time it’s a little bit on steroids, because she’s royal. She could really mess things up if she makes a mistake! There are a lot of people who want to use her, and I think that also, in a way, speaks to our lives today with so much stuff going online. I think a lot of kids measure their work through likes, and it’s horrifying. Though it’s not really that different when we were growing up, because people still could spread rumors about you.
What has it meant to you to hear from readers who grew up with this character and are now introducing the books to their own children?
I’m super proud of my readers, because I have so many that have gone on to work in writing, or have gone into medicine [or] teaching. I even have a couple politicians, which I’m very proud of, that were feeling civic-minded enough after having read those books to go out and try to make change in their communities. It’s astonishing how many of the readers have now gone on to just do really amazing things in their lives, and I’m so pleased. If I had anything to do with that, I don’t know. But I get a little letter from somebody who’s like, “I work in a lab, and it’s because of Michael’s robotic surgical arms,” and I’m just like, “Oh my God, that is so great!” I’m paying it forward to all of the mentors and writers [who] I feel grateful for writing when I was a kid.
Hathaway in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). Everett Given you have written your fair share of romance novels, I can imagine it’s interesting to see this surge in romance in books and onscreen. Particularly with YA romance. I don’t necessarily think it ever went away, but there seems to be a different attitude towards it. Do you see your books as part of the foundation of modern YA romance? Do you think you played a part in helping expand that genre and get readers interested in it?
I can’t take credit for it because I know that it existed way before my books. It was just nobody talked about it because people were embarrassed. It really was looked down upon. Genre fiction as a whole was completely looked down upon, and that’s so misogynistic because it’s almost all women, and unfortunately, our society looks down on things often that women like. There are romances everywhere. I read them as a teenager. I could find them in the library [and] in the bookstore, but no one ever talked about it. If people did see me reading one, they would make fun of me. That’s been an ongoing problem that is fortunately starting to go away. Now so many people are willing to just step out and say, “No, I love this!” and who are you to tell me — I guess they call it “don’t yuck my yum” — what is good. Bad books exist in every single genre. I’m not gonna say anything about the genres that men traditionally like [because] I write in those. [But] I want to really credit girls and women. I think we just finally were like, look, this is what we’re reading, this is what we like, and I think that people are starting to recognize the fact that the most important thing in the world is your emotional well-being, and who is responsible for that. It’s going to be the people who gave birth to you, the people who are your friends, and [who] you fall in love with. It’s such a universal story.
What have you noticed about today’s romance landscape? How have modern romance authors expanded on or improved the genre?
One thing that I am so impressed and excited by is the resurgence of LGBTQ romance. Back in my day, if you wanted to find [that], they had them, but you had to go to a specialty bookstore to find them. I had a friend who was her favorite genre to read, and she would just search everywhere! It’s so great now that she doesn’t have any problem finding exactly the books she wants. There’s something out there for everyone, which certainly did not exist so much when I was a teenager. Or if it did, it was very difficult to find. I do have to say that the internet has made it so much easier to find what you like and the people who like it too, so you have a community.
Are there any misconceptions about romance that you still notice today?
People look down on it. They think it’s all written by AI. Every genre that exists, there’s going to be some books that aren’t as appealing to you as a reader as others, but that’s no reason to put stuff down. I think it’s okay to put down anything written by AI. It’s antithetical to what you and I were taught. What people want to hear is your own voice; the story told in your own way, and that’s what AI completely robs everyone of. It just makes it bland.
“I think that for a book that’s about a girl who finds out she’s a princess, it’s very relatable. She’s a very relatable hero.” Everett ***
The Princess Diaries: The Graphic Novel releases on June 30.
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