The Thrills of Adaptations: Matthew Quirk’s Path to Hollywood

By Néya Sridhar

Matthew Quirk, author of the New York Times Bestselling novel, The Night Agent, started as a STEM undergraduate at Harvard before rediscovering his love for literature. Once he set foot on his journey in English, his career excelled.

Matthew Quirk

Quirk began his work as a writer at The Atlantic between his junior and senior years of college. He mainly covered politics and world affairs. “It was this great kind of baptism by fire. I fell in love with writing,” he said. The first obligation of any journalist is to always speak the truth.

Regardless, The Atlantic gave Quirk access to stories that sparked his imagination. From hearing stories from former CIA members to writing about wars, Quirk articulated, “[it] fired up my imagination and my writing habit sort of finally found a proper subject matter.” Quirk discovered his niche in writing political conspiracy thrillers. Switching from journalism to creative storytelling was easy for Quirk. He said, “It felt so easy. You could just make it all up.”

The Night Agent is known and loved by many. Quirk finds inspiration for his novels within his day-to-day life. “So the book, like a lot of the books, was inspired by a real-life friend of mine who worked for the FBI. And we were, you know, young people in DC and he would have to leave the party at 10:00[pm] and go to some mysterious night shift job. It sounded like a great hook for a book,” he explained.

The Night Agent Novel

Getting an idea turned into a novel, and then made into a movie is a significantly long and hard process. “Is it incredible to have a book optioned? Yes, but it’s not unprecedented. My first book was optioned and then it didn’t get made, The 500. And then I’ve had a couple of other things optioned,” he elaborated. Though the industry can be cutthroat, Quirk’s advice is to keep working for your dreams.

Quirk’s film agent had to pitch The Night Agent hundreds of times before getting someone on board. “I had a film agent who was just incredible and he just kept going. I think he got like 200 no’s on it,” he acknowledged. With time and hard work, The Night Agent got picked up by Netflix.

Matthew Quirk (left) with wife Heather Burke (right) at “The Night Agent” premiere

In regards to involvement in the show-making process, Quirk had some. Shawn Ryan, producer of “The Night Agent” on Netflix kept Quirk in the loop. “Shawn Ryan was really sweet to me at the beginning. He was very gracious and let me see the script and asked for my feedback. We got to talk about the characters, which was really fun,” he said.

The whole experience excited Quirk. He exclaimed, “You know, just getting something made is like winning the lottery. It’s been surreal and fantastic.”

When it comes to transforming a novel on screen, changes have to be made. By understanding the difference between a novel and a show, Quirk was very open to the changes being made on the creative end of filmmaking. Quirk said, “It was just so wonderful having a writer I admired and respected so much. It made it much easier for me to just say, ‘This sounds amazing, do what you want.’” By giving Shawn Ryan creative freedom, the show became half his and half Quirk’s.

“I wasn’t really involved again until I got to visit the set, which was really cool because [I] saw some of the finale fight scenes. And that’s really them just being nice to let the writer come hang out. The writers are really, really great people and it’s really fun to hang out on set,” he said.

Matthew Quirk (middle) at “The Night Agent” Season 1 set

Certain aspects of filmmaking came as a surprise to Quirk. “I was shocked by how hard it is to make a TV show, how involved and how many people it takes, and the long hours they work. When I write a fight scene, I can write the first draft in an hour. I went to ‘The Night Agent’ for a season set where they filmed a fight scene, and it took 14 hours and 200 people,” Quirk remembered.

“Even a simple conversation in the back of a car, you know. They have to shoot it from outside the car, then inside the car, then this person’s point of view, then that person’s point of view.” The level of detail that goes into filmmaking was incredible to Quirk. “I’ve been blown away by how hard they work and what an involved process making a TV show is,” he said.

Matthew Quirk (right) with “The Night Agent” star Luciane Buchanan (left)

Sometimes, imagination can not make it on screens. Quirk has learned that adaptations can never be 100% accurate. He wrote a grappling finale sequence in one novel involving an underwater safe cracking in a giant naval battle. Budgets for films create limits on people’s imagination. This makes Quirk appreciate novel writing; the sky’s the limit.

Having “The Night Agent” do so well has opened doors for Quirk. Other novels of his are in development, including The 500, Hour of The Assassin, and Inside Threat.

To impart wisdom, Quirk concludes, “Try different things but complete things. Write the whole book.”