The Story that Plants a Seed: An Exclusive Guest Post from Brian Selznick, Author of Big Tree

Debug Notice: No product response from API

“Write a story about nature from nature’s point of view.” This was the seed of the idea for what eventually became Big Tree, and it was planted by Steven Spielberg. He and producer Chris Meledandri had invited me to Los Angeles to talk about turning this idea into a movie. Spielberg had realized he’d never seen a movie that really focused on the wonders of the natural world, told from the point of view of the plants. Spielberg and Meledandri knew my book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and its movie adaptation by Martin Scorsese, and they wanted me to create the screenplay. With their guidance, I dreamed up a story about two little sycamore seeds who are looking for a safe place to grow. I set the story at the end of the Cretaceous era for two reasons. One, there was full biodiversity at that point, so the forests looked like our forests, and two, there was an asteroid hurtling towards the earth, and the existential threat seemed to be a good metaphor for the threat the planet is currently facing.  

I imagined one little seed, Merwin, who would be desperate to do as their Mama Tree told them. His only focus would be on finding a safe place for them to grow, where there was good light, water and soil. Meanwhile his sister Louise would be having strange dreams and hearing a voice that seemed to be speaking to her from the stars. Ultimately, she’d come to understand that the voice was telling her and her brother that even though they are tiny sycamore seeds, they have to help save the world. The story had a message I need to remember myself: that no matter how small we feel, there’s always something we can do to help. 

Then, suddenly, we were plunged into the existential crisis of the pandemic. For many reasons it quickly became clear the movie would never happen, but I’d really fallen in love with the story and the characters, and the message felt more important than ever. So, I asked permission to turn the screenplay into a book. I now feel very strongly that the story was always meant to be a book, which is the form I know best. Now I’d be able to really explore ways to use the page turn, and white space, and drawings, that could help bring the story of Merwin and Louise to life.  

Merwin is named after the poet W.S. Merwin who lived much of his life on the island of Maui in Hawaii, where he planted, from scratch, an entire palm forest. He wrote a line of poetry that had helped me feel better at the beginning of the pandemic. It expressed a kind of optimism in the face of horror that resonated very strongly with me. I’ve used that line as the epigram of Big Tree: “On the last day of the world, I would want to plant a tree.”