Author Shelby Van Pelt speaks about her ‘octopus book’ and forthcoming Netflix movie, 'Remarkably Bright Creatures'

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 2013, Shelby Van Pelt, a former financial consultant, took a writing class at Emory University, Atlanta , where one of her assignments involved composing a story from an unusual point of view. She picked an octopus for the exercise, a wise and droll protagonist she wanted to call Marcus Aurelius after the great Roman emperor who lived in 121-180 CE.“Based on feedback from my critique partners, I eventually mashed up his name to Marcellus,” Van Pelt says on a video call from her home in Chicago.

“Just like the stoic philosopher, Marcellus contemplates his death everyday without getting emotional, treating it as just a part of his life cycle,” she adds.We are meeting to talk about the forthcoming movie adaptation of Remarkably Bright Creatures, Van Pelt’s hugely successful debut novel centred around her unlikely octopus hero, which releases on Netflix on 8 May. As a reader who enjoyed the book, I have my fears about Marcellus becoming too cartoonish while being translated to another medium.

But Van Pelt is happy with the outcome.“In the movie, Marcellus’ monologues (which appear like journal entries in the book) have been changed to voiceovers (by Alfred Molina),” she says. “He has been digitally created, but he isn’t doing anything crazily human-like, like carrying a tray, for instance.” Of course, the plot had to be streamlined for the sake of brevity.

“It is, in a sense, its own story,” she adds. “I’m absolutely fine with it because the heart of my novel is still there.” Most of all, she is very excited by the award-winning actor Sally Field playing 70-year-old Tova, one of the key characters of her book, who was inspired by Van Pelt’s own Swedish grandmother.As a visual writer, Van