"The Fat Boy Chronicles" goes to Hollywood

"The Fat Boy Chronicles" goes to Hollywood

Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer Author Diane Lang at home with her dog, Murphy

Diane Lang recently returned to her Chesterfield home, having taken a little rest and relaxation with her husband near Cincinnati where they were visiting family. She likely needed the break. The retired school teacher has embarked on a whole new career as an author of novels and screenplays. And she's realized many a writers' dream - one of her books has been made into a movie.

She hasn't accomplished this alone. Her writing partner, Mike Buchanan, lives in Atlanta. The two of them have penned four novels, two of them published, and three screenplays. Their works, including their fourth screenplay - a work in progress - are published under the pseudonym Lang Buchanan. But their success took a mighty leap with the publication in May of "The Fat Boy Chronicles," and the subsequent screenplay of the story. Filming of the movie wrapped in mid-August.

The partnership came to be years ago when Lang and Buchanan, now both retired educators, taught in the same school in Atlanta. A creative math and science teacher, Buchanan used the novel "October Sky," Homer Hickam's autobiographical story about his childhood journey to become a NASA engineer, as a teaching tool in a science class. Lang, a language arts and drama teacher, picked up on it and teamed with Buchanan to teach the same book in her classroom.

Buchanan then figured a way to make trigonometry interesting by using it to solve murders. He and Lang joined forces again to teach Edgar Allen Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and the partnership cemented.

During a book signing after the publication of their first book, "Micah's Child," they were approached by a young man, Doug Hennig, and his father. Overweight in middle school, Hennig had educated himself about nutrition and exercise and lost 60 pounds during his ninth-grade year. The Hennigs asked Lang and Buchanan to tell his story.

Lang and Buchanan wrote the book - a factual account of Hennig's experiences - but couldn't sell it. "We couldn't get anyone to pick it up," Lang said. "There was no edge to him [Hennig]. He's too good a kid."

So Lang and Buchanan decided to fictionalize him, making him edgier and using real students they'd encountered over the years as educators. Their first step was to give Hennig a fictional name.

"When we moved to Chesterfield four years ago and I saw Winterpock Road, I thought 'What a great name for a character!'"

Jimmy Winterpock, hero of "The Fat Boy Chronicles," was born. Then they fleshed out other fictional characters with the traits and exploits of real kids. One character in the book, Paul, who is a friend of Jimmy's, was largely based on a student Lang once taught who jumped trains. The boy got caught under a train and lost both his legs. In the book, Paul jumps a train and suffers the same fate.

Their next move was to intertwine a murder mystery with Hennig's/Jimmy's weight-loss story. The kids in the novel investigate the killing.

"By the end of the book, the murder is solved, and Jimmy has lost the extra pounds," Lang said. "But we've left room for a sequel or two."

Lang and Buchanan's journey from novels to films is the stuff Hollywood stories are made of. They'd written a screenplay, "Treasure of the Four Lions," about kids who, with the help of Civil War ghosts, travel from Richmond to Atlanta searching for the gold Jefferson Davis was said to have taken with him when he fled Richmond. They shopped it around, but found no takers, until an investor set up Tin Roof Films specifically to back production of the movie.

That was last spring. "Treasure of the Four Lions" is in pre-production, but the investor wanted something that was ready to be filmed right away. With the novel coming out in May, "Fat Boy" seemed to fit the bill, and Lang and Buchanan started working on the screenplay.

"It's a writer's dream, really," Lang said about having someone believe in a work so much that they set up a film company.

The week before the Cincinnati trip, Lang and Buchanan visited the movie set and worked on re-writes. Lang was impressed by the 14-18-hour days the actors and crew put in.

"Acting is not glamorous," she said. "It's hard work and long days."

She's glad to have been there when the film wrapped. "It's memorable to see something you've written work."

She believes the movie, which is currently in post-production, will be released next February. In the meantime, the book is gaining popularity.

"The book deals with health issues, but it tells about teenage life, too," she said. "It tells about a lot of high school issues that parents might not know about."

Teachers like it, too. "It's being taught in language arts classes in middle schools and in ninth-grade health classes."

On Thursday, Sept. 3, the book will be featured during a live taping of "The Doctors," a talk show about various topics. The subject on that day will be people who've experienced big life changes. Ron Lester, the actor who plays Jimmy's doctor in the movie, will appear to talk about his experiences as an obese child who eventually lost more than 300 pounds. The show will air at 10 a.m. on WTVR channel 6 sometime in September.

The book is widely available at bookstores and Internet book-selling sites. Lang and Buchanan will appear at the Commonwealth Centre Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 7-9 p.m., to sign copies of the book.

For more information, visit www.langbuchanan.com.