SINGAPORE, Sept 8 — Malaysian playwright Huzir Sulaiman has completed a feature film adaptation of Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng’s Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel, “The Garden of Evening Mists,” The Straits Times reported today.

The movie is jointly produced by Astro Shaw and HBO Asia.

The 42-year-old Singapore-based theatre practitioner, who is Checkpoint Theatre’s co-artistic director, told the newspaper that the transition from theatre to film is a natural one, similar to yet different from what he is used to.

He was quoted as saying, “You use different parts of the brain. For a film, you have to be more of an artisan and less of an artist because you’re ultimately in the service of the director. In a play, you can be more of an artist.”

He declined to give more details on his screenplay for “The Garden of Evening Mists,” but has several screen forays under his belt, including Dain Said’s 2007 horror film “Dukun”.