Fans of the 1995 legal best-seller 'A Civil Action' probably wondered how any filmmaker could condense Jonathan Harr's gripping 500-page tale into the two-hour film starring John Travolta (opening across the country tomorrow). Writer-director Steve Zaillian had the same reaction when he was sent the book's prepublication galleys. "It was more imposing than the book," Zaillian tells EW Online. "It was double-spaced and on manuscript paper, and it measured about a foot high. It was quite an intimidating prospect." By condensing courtroom scenes and eliminating characters, Zaillian was able to get his 225-page first draft down to 175 pages, then to the shooting length of 140 pages. Even then, a half-hour had to be removed in editing.

Zaillian worked on the project for three years, and though he emerged with a critically acclaimed film, he also finished with a reputation as a bit of a perfectionist. Costar William H. Macy ("Fargo") recently told EW, "Steve would stop a take and walk over to a desk in the foreground, and move an ashtray a quarter of an inch to the left, then shoot it again." But Zaillian believes he's been given an unfounded reputation. "These stories get repeated and repeated, and they become a piece of folklore," he says. "I shoot as much as necessary and no more than that. It could mean doing five takes, or ten, or three. I'm not a perfectionist, but I'm going to keep shooting until the scene is as good as it's going to get."