Category / Literary Adaptations

by Edward Champion

Tideland: Visionary Filmmaking or Just Plain Bad?

While Galleycat is quick to point to some of the book-to-film successes at the Toronto Film Festival, the literary adaptation that has us interested is Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Mitch Cullin’s Tideland. Is this a comeback for Gilliam? Could it be that Gilliam has produced a film that is too sui generis? The early reports so far have been interesting:

  • Cinematical: “[W]hile I found the film extremely easy to follow, there are definitely some uneasy scenes. But the result is what I believe to be a wonderful film as told through the eyes of a little girl with such an overactive imagination she can get through situations of death, mental handicap, drug abuse and poverty without batting an eye. This young charismatic actress is amazing and carries the whole film.”
  • Screen Daily: “Tideland does look very beautiful, with Nicola Pecorini capturing some striking images of cornfields and countryside and the camera constantly prowling and tilting to emphasis the way reality has become skewered. The craftsmanship is small compensation in a film that is too often merely weird and uninvolving.”
  • Reuters: “Terry Gilliam’s ‘Tideland’ provoked some of the strongest negative reactions. Told from the surreal point of view of the daughter of two junkies, played by Jeff Bridges and Jennifer Tilly, it inspired some 30 walkouts halfway through a press and industry screening.”
  • The Boston Globe: “The movie’s a classic case of a gifted filmmaker’s obsessions finally sailing over the edge and taking him along, but as the prairie Candide at the movie’s center, 10-year-old Jodelle Ferland has a talent to make Fanning call her agent in alarm.”
  • Indiewire: “…big-ticket items like Cameron Crowe’s ‘Elizabethtown’ and Terry Gilliam’s ‘Tideland’ sank like lead balloons.”
by Edward Champion

His Dark Adaptation?

Is there new hope for the film adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials? It would seem so. After seeing Tom Stoppard’s contributions eviscerated by Chris (American Pie) Weitz, only for Weitz to weasel out at the last minute, Anand Tucker is now on board to direct. Tucker made one of the best films of 1998, Hilary and Jackie. And anyone who can get Emily Watson and Brenda Griffiths to offer some of the best performances of their careers while also making a cello’s presence ominous has my unmitigated support.

Unfortunately, it looks like Weitz is still on board the project and while Tucker will be whacking the script into shape (with Weitz), Tucker has no screenwriting experience to speak of. If we can’t have Stoppard, then here’s hoping that Hilary and Jackie writer Frank Cottrell Boyce somehow becomes involved so that Weitz’s potential treacle might be kept under control. (via Ghost in the Machine)

by DrMabuse

Cinematic Cockamanie?

It what might be the only bold move in Chris O’Donnell’s career, it looks like he’s set to star with Sarah Polley in a film adaptation of Will Self’s Cock & Bull, the infamous pair of novellas about a man who grows a vagina and a woman who grows a cock. It remains a mystery how such a film will get past the MPAA. Let’s hope that writer-director Matt Nix is, pardon the pun, ballsy enough to go for the NC-17.

by DrMabuse

Seven Books in Tibet?

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: Optioned by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston for New Line.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time by Mark Haddon: Optioned by Brad Pitt.

Dreamland by Kevin Baker: Optioned by Brad Pitt.

Mark L. Smith script: “Brad Pitt is reading one of his scripts.”

And there’s probably more. The moral of the story: If your book rides the careful crest between literary and pop, Brad Pitt will option it.

by DrMabuse

Solid Contentions

solid_geometry.jpegApparently, Ewan McGregor’s uncle (Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy) turned Ian McEwan’s infamous short story,”Solid Geometry,” into a film last year. [Denis Lawson interview.] While this version doesn’t appear to be available online, this wasn’t the first film adaptation of “Solid Geometry.” This forum thread includes an article that chronicles the initial 1979 version. Set to be directed by Mike Newell, BBC-2 pulled the plug when they learned of a nine-inch penis prop. Producer Stephen Gilbert issued public statements, was fired by the BBC, and entered into a substantial dispute. This BBC audio review, featuring smug British intellectual types dismissing the controversy and the penis, details the new Lawson version and covers, in part, the 1979 version.

by DrMabuse

Script Before the Book

Sarah points to this article on Philip K. Dick adaptations, which suggests that the best PKD movies are those made by directors dismissive of the source material. The Post article points out that Ridley Scott dismissed PKD’s work and hadn’t even bothered to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? But what the article fails to acknowlege is that, unless the director is also writing the script, the director’s job is to visualize the story, not actually develop it. With Minority Report, Spielberg was more attracted to creating a future than adhering with the PKD hardline (although Spielberg notes in the Wired interview that he had read Dick). But the fact is that a lot of filmmakers don’t read the original books when the script falls into their hands.

Girl with a Pearl Earring — (Michael Weber): “I deliberately held off reading the book for a while as well. There was one thing I was scared of: I had the script, I had done about eight months working on the script with the writer. I was worried that if I read the book too soon, I would have a whole load of knowledge, just there in my subconscious…”

Nicholas Nickleby — (Charlie Hunman): “Yeah, I read it at school. It was probably mandatory to read at least one Dickens and it just so happened that I was asked to read Nickleby. But when this came around I couldn’t really remember what the book was about. I was just nine years old when I read it and, like most things at school, I didn’t really pay too much attention. I read director Doug McGrath’s adaptation for the film before I re-read the book and I thought he did an amazing job.”

The Hulk — (Ang Lee): “We had tried several drafts of the screenplay, but it didn’t quite work – I didn’t really know what I wanted to do yet. And then one day James [Schamus, co-writer] brought to my attention that in one issue of Hulk they brought the father back, and then an idea hit me. But at the same time I thought, Oh no, not the father/son thing again! But I wouldn’t have done it unless I felt that it was bringing something fresh.”

by DrMabuse

The Eggers Rumor

Okay, folks, here’s what I know about the Eggers-Where the Wild Things Are connection.

I contacted Playtone Productions, the production company that’s behind Where the Wild Things Are. (I won’t dare reveal how I got the number.) I was told by Playtone that they could neither confirm nor deny that Eggers was involved on the screenplay, which suggests that Eggers is possibly involved, but no one is ready to make an official announcement as of yet. I asked if they could tell me if any writer was involved, and they told me, “We don’t give out that kind of information.” So what we have so far is a blank slate.

I then tried contacting Eggers’ office, but was caught in a voicemail labryinth and couldn’t get a live human being.

So at this point, we have nothing but rumors to base a conclusion on. The possibility exists that Eggers has written a screenplay, or is working on a screenplay. Since I’ve lambasted Eggers so much, I seriously doubt he or one of the 826 Valencia people will return the message I left in the general voicemail box. But perhaps someone closer to the fray can give us a definitive answer.

[UPDATE: Couldn’t get a live body at Good Machine. Tried Michel Gondry’s company, Partizan, but didn’t get anywhere, save for a helpful receptionist who replied, “Who is Dave Eggers?”]