Special to the Star-Bulletin
Walt Novak has sold his book to Hollywood.

---

‘Haole’ wins movie
deal for writer

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

Walt Novak is a teacher, writer, a savvy politically incorrect provocateur, hustler, surfer and father.

After a conversation with the 14-year Waianae Intermediate School teacher who wrote the successful 1994 novel "The Haole Substitute," you come away a bit dazed and confused about this Mr. Mom of three teenagers.

"Are you taping this interview," Novak asks in a telephone interview from his Waialua home, "because I have a lot to say." (He later sends a self-addressed stamped envelope so he can be sent a copy of this story.)

If Novak, a frequent writer of letters to the editor, is anything, he's thorough. He is a likable, excitable guy who mocks himself while providing several answers to the same question, ensuring the reporter "gets it."

Yesterday Novak was more enthusiastic than usual, at a loss for words. After a four-hour meeting with "a major studio's executives" in Hollywood, the studio is close to agreeing to a movie development deal for "The Haole Substitute," to be called "The Flip Side of Paradise." The movie could go into production in the spring of next year, said Michele Berk, Lotus Productions Inc., whose company bought the film rights for the book.

"We will know definitely next week," said Berk, who declined to name the studio until the deal is complete. "Oh, man, oh man," Novak gushed from his parent's home in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. "Every-thing is so groovy. I can't even believe it's about to happen."

Screenwriters slated to work on the project are Mich-ael Schiffer ("Crimson Tide") and Joseph Gayton, selected by Woody Harrelson who may star in the film. The film would "definitely" be shot in Hawaii, said Berk, who also has the movie option on Novak's second book, "Half of September."

Berk heard about "Haole" from her agent and "loved it." The book "is on the edge," she said.

"That's the kind of material that gets people into theaters; it's out there, it's a fun ride. And there are still characters you can identify with."

"The Haole Substitute" is about Paul Kodak, a 23-year-old surfer who shoots through the squalor of one of Hawaii's roughest high schools to tackle unusual social and personal problems.

The responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood have turned a champion surfer into a sorry excuse for a substitute teacher.

What was the state Depart-ment of Education's reaction to Novak's novel?

"Not good," he said. "Other teachers were supportive; administrators weren't. I think I'm sort of the DOE's Salman Rushdie."

As far as how much money Novak has received for "Ha-ole," he defers to "the buyer," Berk.

"You don't want to make anybody mad and say the spe-cifics so you send inquiries to the buyer," he said. "I can say it's a low six-figure contract."

Like most successful writers, Novak says he'll keep writing about what he knows best: surfing, teaching, raising kids, living and working in a multi-ethnic environment.

"I used to surf Pipeline and I teach in Waianae; now that's a dangerous life and I've survived both. All I had to do was write it down."