October 31, 2003

Adaptation.

The Trial The Modern Word is staging what looks like a terrifically fun contest:

Imagine one of your favorite books has been turned into a movie, and write a review. The book in question may be any text - fiction, non-fiction, short stories, even a comic book; but it should be reasonably well-known. If it has already been filmed, be sure to compare the old version with the "new." You may feature actual directors and actors, or you may invent your own fictional talent. Be creative - let your review explore the cinematic possibilities of the text itself!

You've got until January 15, 2004, to send in 500 to 1000 words and they've got prizes. Books, of course, by the likes of Neal Stephenson, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Nick Cave.

The mind reels. I know that Jack Nicholson has always wanted to see Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King brought to the screen though he's getting a bit old to tackle the lead. Who would direct, you wonder. And what other directors could be matched with which authors? Darren Aronofsky and Richard Powers, maybe? Takashi Miike and Kathy Acker? (Hm, not so sure about that one.) Who could do something with DeLillo? And would he want it to be done?

More interesting stuff at The Modern Word: "Joyce Lost In Opryland: Labyrinthian Connections In 'Wandering Rocks' & Robert Altman's Nashville," by Jeff Mathewes, and, via the film and TV references page in the Pynchon section, a shortish update on Pynchon's upcoming guest "appearance" on The Simpsons.



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Posted by dwhudson at October 31, 2003 9:04 AM

Comments

I would like to see films made of The Fuck-Up and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World . The latter is by Japan's best-selling author, so all the film rights must have been bought by now, and the former is a property of MTV Books. Guess I'll just keep waiting.

Posted by: Rich at October 31, 2003 1:02 PM

Excellent wishlist. You had me go and check, and sure enough, there hasn't been a single film (far as I can tell) based on a story or novel by Murakami.

Still one of my favorite opening sentences of any review of anything at all at any time:

"With all due respect to Toni Morrison, Ian McEwan, Beverly Cleary, Muriel Spark, Günter Grass, J.D. Salinger, Stephen Dixon, Lorrie Moore, Grace Paley, Gore Vidal, Gabriel García Márquez, Rachel Ingalls, Tom Drury, Thomas Pynchon, Eudora Welty, J.P. Donleavy, Milan Kundera, Philip Roth, Naguib Mahfouz, David Foster Wallace, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Don DeLillo, some people my editor cut, Alice Munro, Dale Peck, José Saramago, Edmund White, E.L. Konigsburg, John Updike, W.G. Sebald, Russell Banks, Stephen Millhauser, Kazuo Ishiguro, Amy Bloom, Robert Cormier, Kenzaburo Oe, Francesca Lia Block, Rick Moody, Donald Antrim, Amos Oz, Paul Auster, Cynthia Ozick, Harry Crews, Denis Johnson, Gary Indiana, Howard Norman, Anne Tyler, Jonathan Lethem, J.G. Ballard, Dorothy Allison, Mary Gaitskill, and - of course - me, Haruki Murakami is our greatest living practitioner of fiction."

Posted by: David Hudson at October 31, 2003 1:09 PM

Too bad plays don't count. I know what I want to see/make.

How doth one find out about rights in this crazy, mixed-up world?

Posted by: Matt at October 31, 2003 6:36 PM

David, who wrote that review? I love anyone who loves Murakami.

Posted by: sakana at November 1, 2003 10:27 AM

Ooops. Missed the link. Don't mind me.

Posted by: sakana at November 1, 2003 10:27 AM

Ah, good, sakana.

Matt, about rights, one good place to start might be the publisher of the play you've got in mind. It's a start!

Posted by: David Hudson at November 1, 2003 2:28 PM

Yeah, I will. Though it's not like I can actually afford to buy film rights to anything.

I should probably make an original something first.

Posted by: Matt at November 2, 2003 5:34 PM