Hallstrom: Shipping News 'not plain sailing'

Hallstrom (centre) shot the film in Newfoundland

Director Lasse Hallstrom went through several writers before he found one who could work out how to adapt novel The Shipping News for the screen, he has said.

Making the film was "particularly challenging" due to the complexities of E Annie Proulx's original novel and the isolation of Newfoundland, Canada, where most of the film was shot, Hallstrom told BBC's Breakfast.

Judi Dench plays Kevin Spacey's long-lost aunt

It stars Kevin Spacey, Cate Blanchett and Dame Judi Dench, and is Hallstrom's third literary adaptation in a row after Chocolat and The Cider House Rules.

He also revealed that his next movie will be based on a mystery novel by David Liss set during the birth of the stock markets in 18th Century London.

The Shipping News, which is released in the UK on 1 March, was a "passion project" for Hallstrom for several years, but proved more complex than his other adaptations, he said.

"This one was particularly challenging. It has such a range of dramatic, comedic, poetic, lyrical and almost farcical elements, it was quite a challenge to try to add it up for the screen."

Hallstrom worked with a number of writers in an attempt to make the film work, he said.

Lasse Hallstrom's film highlights

The Shipping News

Chocolat

The Cider House Rules

Something to Talk About

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

My Life as a Dog

Abba: The Movie

And the weather in Newfoundland, Canada, where much of the movie was shot, posed further problems.

"It was quite a challenge to cope with the surprises of the weather up there. It was like four seasons in one day - you had to be ready to shoot any part of the script at any time," he said.

Hallstrom has been nominated for two Oscars in the past, but missed out on the nominations this year.

But one of its stars, Dame Judi Dench, praised Hallstrom for being a "terrific" director who is gentle and directs "by stealth".

"He does it covertly and cleverly," she said. "He doesn't tell you anything, he makes you think that you've thought of it. Very clever."

Good material

Hallstrom's next project will be a screen version of David Liss's novel A Conspiracy of Paper and will be the fourth book that he has turned into a film.

"It's coincidental. I'll go with any material that attracts me," he told Breakfast.

Hallstrom will again team up with Jacobs, who will write the script based on Liss's debut novel.

The story is set in the London underworld of 1719, where a private detective gets drawn into a web of financial and murder mysteries.