Adaptation is About Subtraction: James Vanderbilt on "Nuremberg" | Interviews | Roger Ebert

"After World War II, US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson led an effort to create judicial proceedings to try the leaders of the Nazi military and government, coordinating the effort with representatives from the other Allied forces, France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. The charge was "crimes against humanity." It was unprecedented in many ways, including the first international trial of officials for the treatment of their own country's citizens."

""You have an audience that may not know about the trials, particularly how unprecedented they were. So you had a hefty burden of exposition, which I think you handled very gracefully. How did you think about giving the audience the background they need to understand the story? That's actually really important to me because I find that many of the movies set in this period assume a level of historical knowledge from the audience-"

After World War II, US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson organized international judicial proceedings to try Nazi leaders, charging them with "crimes against humanity." The Nuremberg trials were unprecedented, including the first international trial of officials for the treatment of their own country's citizens. Nuremberg, written and directed by James Vanderbilt and based on Jack El-Hai's book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, follows military psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who interviewed the first 22 defendants including Hermann Gf6ring. The film concentrates on Kelley and Gf6ring's cell interactions. Vanderbilt used research and outside advice to shift focus, cast major roles including Rami Malek and Russell Crowe, and aimed to make the story accessible to audiences without prior WWII knowledge while drawing on personal family connections to the war.

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