If you can’t adapt, then appropriate. That’s the route some formidable independent directors have followed since J. D. Salinger died, in 2010. Even after his death, his estate upheld his mandate that The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, and Salinger’s 32 short stories would never be adapted for film or television.
In the 90s, DreamWorks’s Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, along with Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein, bid for the film rights to The Catcher in the Rye. The request went unanswered, or perhaps Salinger never received it, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. (Rumor had it that Katzenberg wanted to do it with an all-dog cast).
