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Originally published as a novel in 2001, the story first came to Schreiber’s attention as a piece of short fiction sent to him by the New Yorker magazine. At the time Schreiber was acting in a stage play in New York and was doing a reading series for the magazine. He was immediately attracted to the material. Says Schreiber, “When I read the short story I was very moved by it and at the same time I thought it was the most hilarious thing I had read in years. It’s really about people’s need to be connected. We follow these two people from vastly different cultures who should have absolutely nothing in common, but come to realize that there’s a deep connection between them that is emotionally and spiritually binding.”

Schreiber always had aspirations to be a writer particularly as a student, but at the time, a teacher suggested to him that he would make a better actor than writer. Schreiber took this advice and pursued an acting career instead, but always loved to write.

Coincidently, he was already writing a screenplay about his late grandfather and the Ukraine when he read the story in the New Yorker. “When my Grandfather died I became curious about his history in the hope that it would somehow inform my own. I started to write a lot more and in particular about Ukraine. When I read Jonathan’s story I felt deeply connected to it. What’s more, he had done in 15 pages what I had been trying to do in about one hundred, and he had done it with humor.”

After contacting Foer’s agent, it was several weeks before Schreiber received a call to say that the author was in Spain but wanted to meet when he returned. Foer admits he was excited about meeting the actor. “I got a phone call to say that Liev read the excerpt and wanted to talk to me. I knew his work and was very fond of it, I mean, he is definitely one of New York’s most respected actors. I was also flattered that he was interested in it from reading the excerpt, before the book had even been published.”

Their first meeting was not what Schreiber expected. “I had arranged to meet him in a bar in New York and at the time I knew nothing about him. I imagined some 90-year-old Jewish man from Nantucket who only communicates through his agent. I walked in and there was this 20-something-year-old kid with glasses waving and smiling at me. I remember thinking this must be some guy who’s seen ‘Scream’ or something but he kept waving at me so I went over to him and it was Jonathan. I was blown away,” he laughs.

The two of them ended up telling a lot of jokes, drinking, talking about women, the book, their grandfathers, the Ukraine and what it means to be Jewish. “I remember thinking we had gotten along well and had a great time but I still didn’t know if I would get the rights, then he turned to me and said ‘yeah, yeah go ahead.’ I thought wow that was quick, but then he handed me his agent’s number. There was a little more work to do but basically I left knowing it was going to happen.”

On meeting Schreiber, Foer says, “Liev’s extremely charismatic and it’s very easy to get caught up in what he cares about and I really trusted him straight away. I had no idea what he was going to do with the book but I knew that he cared about it and whatever he did would be a reflection of that caring rather than any other motive one might have for making a movie.”

Although he was excited about his book being adapted to the screen, Foer was not convinced the film would ever get made. “My agent had warned me that ‘99 out of 100 books that are optioned don’t get made into movies. Sometimes a screenplay gets written and sometimes not. Sometimes they find a producer and sometimes not. Only believe it when you are sitting in the front row watching it.’ So I took that for the truth and I never really thought about it after that.”

He acknowledges the novel is not the easiest material to think of in terms of a film. “It’s not the kind of movie where everyone says, ‘oh you know insert Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise right there.’ I think its Liev’s appreciation of what’s difficult about it that inspired him also to direct it. It’s also what makes him love it and it’s what makes me trust him – that he is working on this out of passion.”

Schreiber says he always knew he wanted to write the screenplay and didn’t consider asking Foer to write it or be a co-writer. He adds that the whole process was relatively short. “The screenplay came out of me very quickly. I didn’t try to adapt the whole book. The impetus for the script was the short story titled A Very Rigid Search, not the published novel. Initially, I tried to incorporate some of the fantasy and sense of humor that he has in the 18th century world of Trachimbrod that exists in the second story in the novel. I soon decided it was too big a project to do a period film that goes back and forth, so I concentrated on the first story of Jonathan and Alex.”

Foer wasn’t protective about the material and the changes that would undoubtedly develop in the process. “I didn’t feel protective of things changing for the film,” he says and compares it to making a sculpture. “If I had sculptured a child and someone wanted to take a photo of that child, I wouldn’t feel protective of the sculpture; I would feel protective of the child. My book isn’t what I am concerned about, it’s what I was writing about that matters and I think Liev cares about that.”

He says he collaborated with Schreiber when asked. “Along the way Liev would ask my advice and I gave him that but I never wanted to do any more. I would say I did or didn’t like something if something didn’t work for me, but really Liev did it all from start to finish. I think it was really important for me to separate myself from the writing of the screenplay because I felt I had already expressed what I wanted to say as well as I could. Also, I really trusted Liev’s artistic integrity.”