I saw this great post from Willem De Mexico's blog, and had to agree with his premise that, " ... I understand that, as a reader, I'd love to see a book I enjoyed thrown out to the non-reading world - but, rarely, does it work."
Guillaume, I must agree with you. MY fav example of the inability to transcribe cool shite to film would be Neil Stephenson, especially his Baroque Cycle, once described to me as 'Harry Potter for Global Market freaks'. Well, I'm quoting a economics wanker there, so take it with a grain of salt.
Then there is the category of novels that should become films, and somehow do not. For instance, Madame de la Beantown and myself only read a few writers in a shared manner. I learned this lesson after she gave me a copy of The Notebook. I was forever cautious thereafter.
As this is definitely something that should NOT have become a movie, or any other piles of Sparks shite, I narrowed the list of 'shared reads' to protect myself. We settled on some really great stuff, and as for the middlin'/entertainin'/fav-rave-for-the-shitter, we settled first on Robert B. Parker (like eating a whole box of Oreos), and Mary Doria Russell , whose book The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God, proved quite fascinating to us both.
I bring her up because of a short correspondence I had with her and Barbara Hall, her (then) co-screenwriter. Hall was the producer of a CBS TV Series, "Joan of Arcadia". I don't really recall how I got into this thing, but I did. I just remember sending an email out of curiosity, and then getting slammed.
One line of discussion covered who exactly should play the lead character, a Puerto Riccan Jesuit ---
--- no, that is not an ethnic joke. I don't want to belabor this thang, so if you are really interested in all this sparrow story line, check this link) ---
---At one point, they moaned about the lack of any LA interest, even though the book sold a bizillion copies, etc. While discussing the casting idea, I mentioned that if you wanted a deep-yet-o-so-sensitive- guy, who could play Latin with gravitas and humor, and would put up with being raped by aliens, I suggested there was only one dude for the job; Johnny Depp. This caused a period of silence to ensue, ending with a message of joyous tumult ... Antonio Banderas was so interested he dropped some dough in their laps for development.
There was an extended disconnect with them after this (health problems for Mary, production problems for Barbara), that I lost contact. Mme. de la Beantown asked me some time later what was up, and I checked. Turns out BRAD PITT bought the rights to both books to combine them into a single film, and last I heard it was scheduled to release (?) in 2010.
What was all that shite for? I guess too many good novels become too many bad movies. Here's a thought... does anyone out there think the Children of God the movie was a good or bad version of the book?
4 comments:
You know the irony here? I suggested Johnny Depp to her too. In an email exchange about 8 years ago. And got the same Antonio Banderas blah blah blah...no accounting for taste, right? I just think that Antonio lacks the depth. I'm just sayin. And Brad? Feh. Disappointed.
Ah come on now, Sparks lives virtually next door to us here. In a big fackin' not-environmentally-friendly Booger King Mansion. What? Feck man, his junks is almost despicable. I agree wholeheartedly.
True to you Mz Boots. I guess she was just caucusing the planet trying to figure it out. Or oyu're funnin' me, which is alright as well.
Didn't she have some nickname for Brad as the American/Anglo version of the priest?
Msgr Swine;
While I thorougly agree with your purview on Mr Sparks, I dare not say that to Mme Bwana. She would not appreciate it... actually, I think I already did, which is why I slept on the coach from Nov 2000 to April 2001.
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