Hillary Seitz, screenwriter for Insomnia, is racking up major press coverage for her adaptation of the original 1997 Norwegian movie. Screenwriters don’t always get mentioned in reviews, and the fact that Seitz is garnering such praise bodes well for her and the film.

Seitz majored in art history at Yale University. Learning about movies through art history, she said, is not such a leap. "In art you tell stories through pictures. In movies we do it with words and pictures."

After writing some scripts in college, Seitz came west with her husband, now a VP at Imagine Entertainment. She soon found a job as a script reader. "It’s the best job for a struggling writer. It immerses you into the format, and you get a real sense of what works and what doesn’t," she said.

Her first screenplay, the black comedy Early Bird Special, was produced but went immediately into arbitration and has not yet been released. She was then hired by Warner Bros. to do the adaptation of Insomnia, a film about a veteran police officer (Al Pacino) sent to a small Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. After his partner is killed, a primary suspect (Robin Williams) forces him into a game of psychological cat-and-mouse. The stakes escalate as he contends with an idealistic detective (Hilary Swank) and finds his own stability dangerously threatened.

"I watched the original film twice to get the gist of the story and then put it away," said Seitz about her adaptation. "The skeleton is the same but the original screenplay was pretty scarce, moronic and kind of dismal. My adaptation is a little different including new characters, new motivations and more backstory. It’s more open to turning a corner you hadn’t anticipated."

Seitz admitted she doesn’t write with certain characters in mind. "It’s limiting and a big disservice."

She was ultimately delighted with the cast chosen for the film. "I had no complaint about Al Pacino. He really draws you into the plot. Robin Williams was a surprise, but comedians can also be great dramatic actors as well. He’s actually fantastic – he underplays the role and is very loose."

She is thrilled to have worked with director Christopher Nolan (Memento), who is also receiving positive comments in media reviews of Insomnia. "I’m so pleased to have had a visionary who breathed life into the characters," Seitz said. "It was a good collaboration."