Canadian director Atom Egoyan adapted the screenplay after his wife , actress Arsinée Khanjian , suggested he read Russell Banks ' '' The Sweet Hereafter '' . The novel is inspired by an incident in Alton , Texas , in 1989 , in which a bus crash killed 21 students , leading to multiple lawsuits . Egoyan found it initially challenging to acquire the rights , as they had been optioned to another studio that was not actually producing it . Shortly before the option expired , novelist Margaret Atwood suggested to Egoyan that he meet with Banks personally after the director 's success with the film '' Exotica '' ( 1994 ) , and Banks was willing to grant him the rights . Egoyan later stated he was drawn to filming the novel because he felt film is for " confronting the most extreme things . " As an Armenian Canadian , he also saw the story as a metaphor for the Armenian Genocide , in which those guilty had not accepted responsibility
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Sweet Hereafter (film)