How Jeremiah Zagar's 'We the Animals' artfully illustrates the complexity of a young boy's coming of age
After picking up Justin Torres' debut novel, "We the Animals," in the recommended section of a Manhattan bookstore, director Jeremiah Zagar knew almost immediately that he wanted to adapt it for film.
"It's got an amazing first page," he said. "I was blown away. I went to the store's cafe, and I just read the whole book. It's like 100 pages, so it's like reading an article."
Over the course of a couple hours, he found himself moved by the story, which centers around the coming of age of a young boy growing up with three rough and tumble brothers in upstate New York.
Zagar bought the book, plus seven or eight copies for his producers and other members of the team he'd begun forming in his head.
"That's the short story," he said.
The long story is, after working on the editing team of the Oscar-nominated
