On Valentine's Day 2011, director Lenny Abrahamson sent a letter to author Emma Donoghue, having finished her novel Room.
In the letter, Abrahamson tells the writer why he feels that he should be the one to direct the movie instead of literally anyone else.
However, on this day in 2011, Abrahamson is not the known quantity he is today. At that time, he only had Garage and Adam & Paul under his belt. He was working on his breakout film What Richard Did, and had not even begun work on Frank yet.
Yet, despite also being approached to work with some of the biggest A-List directors in Hollywood, Donoghue could see the passion by Abrahamson for her novel, and decided to go with him in the director's chair. The risk clearly paid off, with the movie currently up for four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (going to Donoghue herself).
While on the publicity trail for the movie, Abrahamson spoke freely about the letter he'd written, and today he allowed Indie Wire to release it in full, and you can read all five pages below:
