Eureka and other novelizations

[Aaron Gerow]

The novelization of Eureka, penned by the director Aoyama Shinji, has 
just been published by Kadokawa Shoten (ISBN: 4-04-873267-6; date: 
2000.12; 1500 yen).  This, even though the film has yet to be released 
(it will finally come out on January 20, it seems).  While it would be 
interesting to talk about how a film that makes an issue of speech and 
language is transposed into the written word, I was curious about the 
phenomenon of directors writing the novelization of their own films.  

Novelizations are, of course, not new, but I wonder how many cases there 
are of the director him or herself penning the book.  Maybe some use 
ghost writers, but I know Aoyama did not, nor did Kawase Naomi, who wrote 
the novelization of Moe no Suzaku (available from Gentosha, 1997; ISBN: 
4-87728-188-6; 1300 yen), and is currently finishing up the book of her 
as-yet-to-be-released Hotaru.  It seems Kurosawa Kiyoshi also wrote the 
novelization for Cure (for Tokuma Shoten), and Koreeda Hirokazu for After 
Life (for Hayakawa Shobo).

First, can anyone think of other cases where Japanese directors wrote the 
novel-version of their own film?

Second, is this a phenomenon visible in other national cinemas?  What are 
some other examples?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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