Author Rick Yancey talks about the process of getting his book adapted into a feature film 

Rick Yancey, author of the YA novel, The 5th Wave, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about the movie adaptation of his book and what it was like seeing his characters come to life on the big screen.

As a reader, it’s always something we are curious about – the author’s thoughts on the adaptation, whether it be a movie or a TV series – and it seems it’s been a pretty positive experience for Yancey.

This is the first book you’ve had that has been turned into a feature film. What surprised you about the adaptation process?

Practically everything. I had heard horror stories of writers being left out of the loop and feeling like they were an afterthought and the source material is ripped to pieces, but my personal experience was nothing like that. I was meeting with the producers and talking with the screenwriters throughout the whole process. They really made an effort to include me. I was also there for a lot of the film, for about 50 percent of it.

What was it like being on set?

It was surreal. When you write a book, the action and characters are inside your head but then you go onset and see it in three dimensions. I have tried to describe it before, it is like seeing someone you knew in middle school all grown up. Like you kind of see the middle schoolers face in the grown up face but it just feels different.

For me, seeing iconic scenes from the novels actually done with actors and props and sets was exactly like I imagined it while being not at all like imagine it. Like seeing a picture of a rose and then getting the chance to smell the rose.

Did Chloe Grace Moretz embody Cassie in the way you imagined her?  

I haven’t seen the finished product but here was this moment on set—this tin little scene—and the apocalypse has happened and she hasn’t had a hot meal in months and she sits down at a table for a meal. It is so subtle but there is this look on her face when she realizes ‘Oh my god, this is the first hot meal I have had in months.’ It’s a simple human moment. It was in that scene that I thought that that’s exactly it, that is how Cassie would react.

Read the complete interview at Hollywood Reporter

The 5th Wave movie lands in theaters tomorrow, January 22nd.

The sequel novel, The Infinite Sea, is already out in bookstores, and the third and final book of the series, The Last Star, is scheduled for publication on May 24, 2016.