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thehefnerNew icon inspired by Mikey.
So I saw the movie version of Hearts in Atlantis, which if you don't recall is one of my new favorite books of all time. The movie starred Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, and Alan Tudyk, plus the screenplay was written by William Golden, author of The Princess Bride, Marathon Man, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Yet it was still lame.
What happened? It was just the same kind of boring, unimaginitive adaptation of superior material that we see all the time. The changes the movie made to the original story robbed the movie of anything interesting and we were left with a been-there-done-that toothless, ballsless, overly sentimental and forgettable bit of claptrap.
Forgive me; I just don't take it so well when an absolutely wonderful book is watered down to blandness like this. Especially when it's a book largely ignored by the vast majority of people who just write it off as a later work of an overrated horror author whose best books are behind him.
Now you can add Hearts in Atlantis alongside Gangs of New York in the list of movies that I want to remake someday. Mom thinks it can only be done as a several-part miniseries, but I'm fairly confident it could work as a three hour movie. Think Magnolia by way of The Hours with a good deal of Stand by Me thrown in. An ensemble movie that bounces between three time periods/stories that are all connected. It really could be rather wonderful.
But, then, maybe like one of you has actually read the book, so there's no point in rambling on with it. You'll just have to wait for the movie. Or actually read the book yourselves, hint hint.
So I saw the movie version of Hearts in Atlantis, which if you don't recall is one of my new favorite books of all time. The movie starred Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, and Alan Tudyk, plus the screenplay was written by William Golden, author of The Princess Bride, Marathon Man, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Yet it was still lame.
What happened? It was just the same kind of boring, unimaginitive adaptation of superior material that we see all the time. The changes the movie made to the original story robbed the movie of anything interesting and we were left with a been-there-done-that toothless, ballsless, overly sentimental and forgettable bit of claptrap.
Forgive me; I just don't take it so well when an absolutely wonderful book is watered down to blandness like this. Especially when it's a book largely ignored by the vast majority of people who just write it off as a later work of an overrated horror author whose best books are behind him.
Now you can add Hearts in Atlantis alongside Gangs of New York in the list of movies that I want to remake someday. Mom thinks it can only be done as a several-part miniseries, but I'm fairly confident it could work as a three hour movie. Think Magnolia by way of The Hours with a good deal of Stand by Me thrown in. An ensemble movie that bounces between three time periods/stories that are all connected. It really could be rather wonderful.
But, then, maybe like one of you has actually read the book, so there's no point in rambling on with it. You'll just have to wait for the movie. Or actually read the book yourselves, hint hint.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-22 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-22 07:12 pm (UTC)Yeah, check the book out, see what you think. I love the damnned thing. If you can, I'd almost even suggest the book on tape over the book itself; William Hurt's reading is astounding.