The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. Today’s subject is Kelly Fremon Craig, who ends the 50 year wait for the movie adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, the Judy Blume novel that has been a coming of age handbook for young women heading into their tumultuous teen years. Fremon Craig got her first taste in that territory with Edge of Seventeen, and she once again re-teamed with producing legend James L. Brooks after the two of them enticed the author to entrust them with Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. Blume had been turning down overtures to transfer her work to the screen, but she sparked to both Brooks and Fremon Craig’s script. Here, the latter explains the influences that led to her biggest career moment.