Juno (film)
Diablo Cody was first approached to write a screenplay by film producer Mason Novick, who had previously landed her a book deal for her memoir, "", after discovering her blog about stripping. He persuaded her to adapt the book for the screen, but suggested that she first write a screenwriting sample to show studios; that sample became "Juno". After deciding on an adoption storyline, Cody collected the stories of adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents, including that of her then-husband, an adoptee who reunited with his birth parents after she wrote the film. She also found inspiration in the story of a close friend who had become pregnant in high school and used some details from her friend's experience in the film, such as mistreatment from an ultrasound technician. Much of "Juno", however, was based on Cody's own high school experiences: She dated a tic-tac-loving boy similar to Paulie, she was best friends with a cheerleader like Leah, and she used a hamburger phone identical to the one that appears in the film. After writing the screenplay over seven weeks in the Starbucks section of a Target store in Crystal, Minnesota, Cody compared writing to breathing, seeing Juno as an extension of herself.
Joy Cowley
She started out writing novels for adults, and her first book, "Nest in a Falling Tree" (1967), was adapted for the screen by Roald Dahl. It became the 1971 film "The Night Digger". Following its success in the United States, Cowley wrote several other novels, including "Man of Straw" (1972), "Of Men and Angels" (1972), "The Mandrake Root" (1975), and "The Growing Season" (1979). Typical themes of these works were marital infidelity, mental illness, and death, as experienced within families. Cowley has also published several collections of short stories, including "Two of a Kind" (1984) and "Heart Attack and Other Stories" (1985). Today she is best known for children's books, such as "The Silent One" (1981), which was made into a 1985 film. Others include "Bow Down Shadrach" (1991) and its sequel, "Gladly, Here I Come" (1994).