‘Catch-22’ Team Talks Challenges of Adapting Novel With Dozens Of Characters – The Contenders Emmys Video

Catch-22 recently made its highly-anticipated debut on Hulu.

George Clooney directs and co-stars in the adaptation of Joseph Heller’s seminal novel about artful dodger Yossarian (Christopher Abbott).

The book contained nearly four dozens characters, which made it extremely difficult for writers Luke Davies and David Michôd to adapt.

At Deadline‘s The Contenders Emmys event, Davies talked about the difficulty in adapting a limited television series from a book with nearly four dozen characters.

“There are about 40 characters in the novel,” he said. “I whittled it down to about 15. It was really hard making decisions about what to leave out of the novel.”

Still, executive producer Richard Brown said Davies got to “the heart” of the material.

“We made an agreement with Paramount and Luke disappeared for a few months, came back with these fantastic scripts that really came back to the heart of what Heller was writing about,” Brown said.

 Catch-22 premiered May 17 and is currently streaming on Hulu. To watch the conversation at The Contenders Emmys just click the link above.