More of this Feature ADDITIONAL INTERVIEWS: • Michelle Pfeiffer ('Ingrid') • Alison Lohman ('Astrid') • Cole Hauser ('Ray') • Patrick Fugit ('Paul') • Director Peter Kosminsky • "White Oleander" Author, Janet Firth ADDITIONAL "White Oleander" INFORMATION: • Photos from the Premiere of "White Oleander" • "White Oleander" News, Trailer, and Websites • "White Oleander" Production Photos

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JOHN WELLS (Producer, "White Oleander")

So you're reading "White Oleander" one night and you decided you have to do this?
Yes. It happens occasionally, particularly with material like Janet Fitch's material. It's very cinematic where when you read it you go, “Oh my God, I can see the movie.” In fact, when I read it I imagined almost immediately Michelle Pfeiffer in the part of the mother. Often times you'll sort of read something and you can't quite figure out how it would be a film. This one, you read it and thought, “This is a movie.”

Was it a little daunting making a movie from a book that's so well loved?
It became daunting. When we bought the book, nobody knew it and nobody had heard of the author. We figured we were buying a little book that would get some minimal distribution and not that many people would see. By the time we were actually developing it, it was the number one bestseller. Everybody you ran into told you how you should adapt it, including my own mother.

Obviously you have to cut things and you have to change things to get a novel into an adaptation. We tried very hard to be sympathetic to what we thought the readers would want to see. [We] consolidated some characters, [and] lost some scenes and some characters that we really didn't want to lose.

Any character in particular that you were sorry to see go?
Yes, Marvel for me was the one that was hard to go. For people who know the book, they'll go “Oh, Marvel's not there,” but we were able to take a lot of characteristics of Marvel and put her into the character of Starr. Some of the better scenes consolidated some of these characters all together.

Did you think you'd attract such a big-name cast?
No you don't expect it but you are hopeful that the quality of the material will actually encourage people to come and do it. That's what happened to us. We were very lucky; our first choice was Michelle Pfeiffer and she read it and responded to it. Our first choice for Claire was Renee [Zellweger] and she said, “If I can put it into my schedule I'd love to do it.” We were able to do that.

Robin Wright Penn isn't who we had ever thought of because it's not the kind of part that she's played in the past. But the second that the casting director mentioned it we thought, “Oh my God, I bet she could do it.” She came down and we had a wonderful meeting.

If you have the material - the book is a wonderful book and then the adaptation by Mary Agnes Donoghue is a great adaptation - if you have the goods, people show up and want to be in it.

What about the casting of Alison Lohman? She really does steal the movie.
Peter [Kosminsky] spent months and months and months trying to find Alison. Peter saw 400 or so women who auditioned for the part all over the country. Every time she came in she was better than the time we'd seen her before. She was bald at the time so it was kind of hard to get over that. She had just played a cancer victim in the Kevin Costner film, “Dragonfly,” where she had shaved her head. She had about 1/8 of an inch of stubble on the top of her head. It was hard to picture her (laughing). She was wonderful in the film.

You're an executive producer with “ER.” Did you suggest Noah Wyle for this film?
Yes I did, actually. I said, “You know who would be great in this part? Noah Wyle.” (laughing). I wasn't all that subtle.

What's up next for you?
We've got a lot of other stuff going. We've got “Far From Heaven” that opens in a few weeks. It opens in November with Dennis Quaid and we just did “One Hour Photo” with Robin Williams. We've got a new Neil Jordan film that opens in March. It's called “The Good Thief.”

Those are all dramas. Why not a few comedies?
We've got a couple that we're trying and we'll see if anyone thinks we're funny.