Director’s Statement

When Paulo Coelho wrote The Alchemist in just two weeks in 1987, he could not have foreseen the worldwide phenomenon it would become. His novel has changed the lives of over a hundred million readers, and it will always be one of the most important literary works of all time. While there is a great responsibility in adapting any literary work to film, there is none greater than The Alchemist.

I humbly accept that responsibility and embrace it with passion as a filmmaker of more than twenty years and forty films. I have devoted my entire life to bringing stories from concept to screen while honoring those stories, respecting artists’ and authors’ visions, and fostering films that are true to themselves and the best experience for audiences. My goal in making The Alchemist is to do the same – to bring Coelho’s grand adventure to people around the world. To help challenge people to be the best version of themselves. To inspire them to listen to their hearts and follow their dreams. The Alchemist tells us to pursue our dreams by following what our hearts desire. It tells us we will get knocked down and that our dreams may not be acceptable to others around us, but it inspires us to pursue them nonetheless.

Our goal is to bring Coelho’s seminal work both to those who have yet to experience it, and to those who have already fallen in love with the book, as a cinematic experience they will treasure and one they will feel honors its origins. We are working towards creating a four–quadrant, worldwide family event film, one that will help bring the film and Coelho’s story to the biggest audience in the broadest way possible.

To do justice to the book and its message, we must do this right and we must be authentic. The story must stand on its own. We will use VFX sparingly, focusing on the beauty in our natural surroundings to bring the world to life. We will marry our score to the sights, smells and sounds of the region – wind, heat, sand, water, snow. We will treat each culture represented as special, unique and beautiful, from the Spaniards in Andalusia to the Arab community in Morocco to the Egyptian caravan guides to the Bedouin tribes across the Sahara Desert. Our casting will represent these cultures authentically, and our craftspeople will honor their traditions with truth. The clothing will be made using the same textiles, the same colors and the same manufacturing techniques as they were in the late 19th century across the various locations. We will try to limit our use of post VFX to the bare minimum and put as much in–camera as possible. The goal is for audiences to be transported to this world, and for those who come from these areas, to see them authentically and perhaps, for the first time, as they knew them to be. If we are successful, audiences will walk out of the theater and believe they can have an experience as epic as Santiago’s. And the book will be our totem. We will focus on its themes, and we will not deviate from them.

Gil Netter and I have been working together on the project for over 3 years now. Not only is Gil an amazing producer, but he is also a teacher, a friend and an inspiration – he is altogether at once “the King,” “the Crystal Merchant” and “the Alchemist.” Together, we have assembled a creative team of exceptional artists to bring the film to life. This is not just a project for us, not just a job. Everybody involved in the film has one very important thing in common – we are all on this journey because of our shared passion for the book and relentless desire to bring Coelho’s story to an even larger audience across the globe. We are passionate about the journeys each of us have lived, and we find our own lives are a reflection of the very work we’re bringing to screen.

It is perhaps that last element which is most important: we are here to protect this tale because it is special to each of us. We are here to honor it, because we each have a deep emotional connection to it. We are here to bring our expertise forward to create a film that is authentic and true to its origins because we see those origins in our own lives.

We have a job to do, one responsibility above all else: to bring The Alchemist to life on screen and to the world as if the pages of the book were coming alive. Not to embellish or expand, not to change or adapt, but to transform words on a page into an epic cinematic reality that matches the book’s own truth. And we are doing this to inspire. To heal. To tell everybody that their lives matter and that their dreams are important and possible.