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| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Jan 17, 2010, 04:18 PM IST
When Geeta Anand started writing the extraordinary story of an American father's fight against the system to save his children, she had no idea that it will interest Harrison Ford and become the subject of a major Hollywood film.
Anand, who was part of the Pulitzer Prize winning team of The Wall Street Journal, first wrote an article in 2003 about John Crowley and his struggle to find a cure for his children suffering with Pompe's disease, a rare muscle disorder.
She decided to develop the article into a book 'The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million — And Bucked the Medical Establishment — In a Quest to Save His Children', which has inspired Ford's latest film Extraordinary Measures, to be released by Sony Pictures Entertainment in India on March 19.
"It is very exciting that the book has been made into a film. Harrison Ford got the rights of the book in 2004 even before I wrote the book. It was great to see him interested in the story," Anand told PTI in an interview.
Ford and Michael Shamberg, who has produced films like Erin Brockovich and World Trade Center, wanted to make a medical drama. When they read the story of John Crawley, who helped fund the research to cure a rare disease in a bid to save his own children, they decided to make a movie on it.
"My agent send the book proposal to a movie agent who knew that Ford and the producers wanted to make a medical drama. Ford read the proposal and he was very much interested and wanted to make a movie very quickly," Anand said.
"Ford roped in Robert Nelson Jacob, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Chocolat to write the screenplay. I would write the book chapter by chapter and send it to Jacob, who a wonderful man," Anand, who is now based in Mumbai, said.
Ford, 67, also the executive producer of the movie, initially wanted to play the main character but later decided to do the role of Dr Robert Stonehill. Brendon Frazor of the Mummy has played Crawley in the movie.
Anand's book has already released in the US in December and it is coming out in India in March.
Asked about the controversy over the credits in 3 Idiots and she comes out in defence of author Chetan Bhagat.
"I can see how easy it is for a writer not to be credited properly in a movie. We are not used to spending our money on lawyers who can scrutinise the contract. I sympathise totally with Chetan," Anand said.
She did not face any problems in this regard with the producers but is "disappointed" with certain aspects of the contract.
"I am properly credited in the beginning of the film but at the same time I am disappointed as well. I was assuming that we could use the movie poster on the book but the CBS films would not let us do that which was extremely disappointing. There is always some heartbreak along the way," Anand said.
She is now planning another book, which will chronicle her father's struggle during India's partition.
"I was always fascinated by my dad's big Punjabi family. I wanted to write about my dad's life in the context of his family. The family moving from the Pakistan and coming to Mumbai, sending him to the US where he met my American mom and married her," Anand said.
