W. Bruce Cameron's 'A Dog's Purpose' Is Headed To The Big Screen

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) - What if your dog had a previous life? Or several previous lives?

Well, that's the concept behind W. Bruce Cameron's book "A Dog's Purpose." Cameron calls it "A Novel For Humans."

The author spoke with WCBS 880's Pat Farnack

LISTEN: Farnack With Cameron

(Download the full interview HERE)

"'A Dog's Purpose' is the story of a dog who reincarnates and remembers each life and, over time, learns lessons in each life that helps him with the next and comes to believe that there must be a reason for this, a purpose, because otherwise it wouldn't keep happening. So, he determines that what he must do is figure out his purpose and fulfil it or he'll just keep being reborn. So, he's goes through several different lives, all of it in search of the larger 'What is my purpose?' question," said Cameron.

As for Cameron's inspiration, Farnack asked, "Were you looking into a dog's eye at the time?"

"That is almost exactly the story. I happened to be riding my bike and I ran across a dog with whom I interacted and the dog looked at me and acted toward me as if it had met me before and, in fact, reminded me so much of my dog Cammy that I had when I was a little boy, that I rode away with this disquieting notion that perhaps I had just encountered the soul of my very first pet and I started wondering 'Well, what would that look like from the dog's perspective?' hence 'A Dog's Purpose,' which is a book told from the perspective of a dog," said Cameron.

"DreamWorks hired my wife, who is a screenwriter, and I were given the opportunity to write the screenplay for 'A Dog's Purpose' to come to the big screen and they are still eying 2012 thinking that they might be able to get it on the screen as early as next year," said Cameron.

"Do you know yet who has been tapped to play Bailey?" asked Farnack.

"No, you know, but interestingly enough, I know one of the dogs who played Marley in 'Marley and Me' and there were like nine of them. It takes a village. It takes a dog pack to play a dog. So, it's really going to be a lot of dogs that are going to come together for this - an ensemble cast of dogs," answered Cameron.

"I wanted to write a book that just stated some simple truths that we all know to be true and that is that real love never dies and that our true friends will always find their way back to us and in 'A Dog's Purpose' I hope I communicated those simple concepts so that people could believe them," said Cameron.

Cameron is also known for writing "8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter" which became an television series with the now late John Ritter.

To learn more about the book