Remarkably Bright Creatures author on Netflix adaptation, Sally Field, Lewis Pullman

When Shelby Van Pelt began writing Remarkably Bright Creatures, her dream was simple: to finish a novel and perhaps one day see it on a bookstore shelf. Today, her debut, an emotionally layered story about grief, loneliness, friendship and healing led by a deeply observant octopus named Marcellus, has sold over four million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a Netflix film starring Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, and Alfred Molina.

Calling the experience “beyond anything” she imagined, Van Pelt told India Today exclusively that watching her fictional world transform into a film still feels surreal. “This is beyond anything I could have imagined,” she said. “The peak vision in my mind when writing was maybe seeing it on a shelf in a bookshop.”

On Sally Field, Lewis Pullman and the Netflix adaptation

For Van Pelt, one of the surprising parts of the adaptation journey was watching actors she had subconsciously envisioned while writing eventually become the characters onscreen. The author revealed that she often “casts” actors in her head while developing characters, and Sally Field had always been her imagined version of Tova Sullivan.

“I literally remember thinking of Sally Field when I was writing Tova,” she said. “She looked a little like my grandma Anna in some ways. She’s perfect.” She was equally thrilled with Lewis Pullman playing Cameron, the immature yet emotionally vulnerable drifter who slowly becomes one of the story’s emotional anchors.

“He’s this adorable sort of screw-up, self-deprecating, but very cute about it,” she laughed. “Lewis Pullman as Cameron is absolutely perfect.”

Van Pelt also served as an executive producer on the film and was involved in script discussions, casting conversations and creative consultations during production. However, she described her role more as a “trusted consultant” than someone with full creative control.

“I got to read and give notes on versions of the script. I got looped in on casting decisions and that sort of thing,” she explained. “But it’s not like I have any real power or veto. I’m more like a trusted consultant.”

The author said she consciously approached the adaptation as a separate artistic medium rather than expecting a page-by-page recreation of the novel. “A good adaptation is always going to depart from the book a little bit in order to stand on its own,” she said. “There were scenes in the film where I thought, ‘Why didn’t I think of this for the book?’”

Still, there were certain emotional truths she wanted preserved, especially Tova’s deeply restrained personality. Van Pelt recalled conversations where dramatic additions were suggested for the screen adaptation, including scenes in which Tova aggressively confronts the police over her missing son.

“In my head, I was like, ‘Tova would never do that,’” she said. “It might make for a visually dramatic scene, but you also have to stay true to the character.”

She also admitted she was initially nervous the adaptation might lean too heavily into romance, particularly Tova’s companionship with Ethan.

“In the book, I was very deliberate about emphasising the friendship aspect, the companionship aspect,” she said. “I was nervous they’d push it into a big dramatic romance, but they didn’t do that.”

For Van Pelt, preserving the emotional core of the story mattered more than recreating every scene from the novel. “As long as the core and the themes remain intact, the essence stays alive,” she said.

Bill Gates, bestsellers and an octopus cultural moment

The surreal moments did not stop with Netflix. Remarkably Bright Creatures also landed on Bill Gates’ holiday reading recommendations, something Van Pelt still laughs about.

“He was not on our list of target customers,” she joked. “He doesn’t put fiction books on his list very often.”

The author believes the novel arrived at a strangely perfect cultural moment, particularly after the success of the Oscar-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher.

“I think octopuses were having this cultural moment,” she said. “That documentary came out right as I was querying publishers. That was hugely lucky.”

Ironically, Van Pelt admitted she never realised writing from an octopus’s perspective was considered unconventional in literary fiction.

“I didn’t go to school for writing,” she said. “If I had known people thought writing from an animal’s perspective was frowned upon, maybe I wouldn’t have tried.”

On writing Tova and Cameron

Despite Marcellus becoming the breakout star of the novel, Van Pelt said the emotional foundation of the story always rested with Tova. The emotionally reserved widow was heavily inspired by the author’s Swedish family background and particularly her grandmother, Anna.

“I feel like Scandinavian people are notoriously Tova-like: hardworking, kind, but emotionally reserved or stoic,” she explained. “You don’t really talk about your feelings. You just put your head down and do the hard work.”

Van Pelt said she intentionally built the novel around characters who were emotionally “stuck” in different ways. “I liked the idea that Tova is really stuck, and Marcellus is also stuck,” she said. “All of these characters were trying to get unstuck from their various boxes, whether it’s a literal aquarium or a metaphorical one.”

She also revealed that Cameron ended up becoming the most difficult character to write.

“Cameron absolutely was the hardest,” she admitted. “He sort of started out almost as a villain because I was Googling things like ‘how to write a novel’, and every structure said you need a hero and a villain.” Eventually, however, the author realised Cameron worked better as a flawed but deeply human character rather than a traditional antagonist.

“He’s not a bad guy. He’s just a frustrating guy,” she said. “Every family has a Cameron. Every friend group has a Cameron.”

And perhaps that relatability is exactly why Remarkably Bright Creatures continues to resonate across generations and countries. Beneath the whimsy of a wisecracking octopus lies a deeply human story about loneliness, grief, friendship and the messy process of learning how to let people in.

The film is now streaming on Netflix