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The Road: The Movie
mellowshipslinky
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I get the impression quite a few of you have read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and I'm sure many of you are also aware that it's now going to be a movie. For some reason I envisioned it being released sometime in the distant future of 2009, but it's actually coming out this November. Being excited to learn this, I thought I'd vent some of my enthusiasm in this thread here.
The Road (IMDb)
Release date: November 26 2008
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring:
Viggo Mortensen as the father
Kodi Smit-McPhee as the son
Charlize Theron as the wife
and even Guy Pearce, of Memento fame, as "the veteran" (although it eludes me at the moment as to who "the veteran" was in the book)
The script is supposed to be pretty faithful to the source material, although it does apparently expand the role of the wife with the help of extended flashbacks. I think most people are pleased the the casting of Viggo as the father, but the son is an equally important role that could easily screw this movie up if played poorly. While the kid looks like a tool in the photo below, apparently Kodi Smit-McPhee has some decent acting chops, at least according to an article from the New York Times:
Some movie stills:
One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was simply the style it was written in. As wikipedia says:
For me, the writing style played a large part in creating the whole atmosphere of the story, and I'm really interested in seeing how this novel translates to film. Hopefully they don't fuck it up!
The Road (IMDb)
Release date: November 26 2008
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring:
Viggo Mortensen as the father
Kodi Smit-McPhee as the son
Charlize Theron as the wife
and even Guy Pearce, of Memento fame, as "the veteran" (although it eludes me at the moment as to who "the veteran" was in the book)
The script is supposed to be pretty faithful to the source material, although it does apparently expand the role of the wife with the help of extended flashbacks. I think most people are pleased the the casting of Viggo as the father, but the son is an equally important role that could easily screw this movie up if played poorly. While the kid looks like a tool in the photo below, apparently Kodi Smit-McPhee has some decent acting chops, at least according to an article from the New York Times:
Kodi is Kodi Smit-McPhee, an 11-year-old Australian who plays the son and bowled everyone over when he tested for the part, greatly reducing the anxiety filmmakers feel when casting a child. Some of the crew privately referred to him as the Alien because of the uncanny, almost freakish way that on a moment’s notice he switched accents and turned himself from a child into a movie star.
Some movie stills:
One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was simply the style it was written in. As wikipedia says:
Throughout the story McCarthy uses a basic rough style of writing. He often neglects to denote contractions with apostrophes as well as forming run on sentences by not using commas. The story also lacks typical dialogue styles. Conversations lack quotations and the dialogue is often not separated into separate paragraphs. In addition, the novel has no chapters or breaks, and the main characters are referred to merely as "the man" and " the boy".
For me, the writing style played a large part in creating the whole atmosphere of the story, and I'm really interested in seeing how this novel translates to film. Hopefully they don't fuck it up!
mellowshipslinky on
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I suspect I will dislike this film.
Is he getting too much recognition for your tastes?
Why, exactly? I know some people say they aren't sure about wanting to see it because they think it would be too depressing, and had enough of that with just the book.
The book is of a holocaust and I sure didn't think of some heroic figure. I pictured someone whose face wasn't very assuring. Viggo's casting sets the audience up to hope and be assured when the crux of the story is that there is no hope. Already I sense a crucial misstep in what Cormac was getting at about just survival and good vs. evil.
But whatev, I never go into movies adapted from books with high expectations.
Yeah pretty much.
And from what the OP says about the guy's writing style, I'd probably rather choke him than shake his hand.
In this month's paste magazine there is an article about violence in media, the writer said the media idolizes him, but in reality he's just Steven King without the entertainment value.
Interesting point. I do think I would have liked it better if they had at least chosen actors that weren't so well known... not only to avoid the associations/type-casting people tend to have in their minds with more famous actors, but also to capture more of that "every man" thing that the book has. The way the characters are just "the father" and "the boy"... it's more about the relationship between them than about them as individuals. At the same time, I'm glad they have somebody who has proven himself to be a decent actor.
I'll freely admit I found his style annoying at first, but it grew on me, obviously.
My expectations are met with the choice of the Father with Viggo. Even though he might not fit a non-hero type role, he is still a good enough actor to make it work. That's assuming the writer/director keep the plot and characters of the book.
How he writes is why he is a good writer. I don't fault anyone for their elitist disdain for all things popularized by the middle, sometimes it's just a natural aversion. But it's tiring when elitists trash popular works without accounting for true merits of its work.
If anything, writers like McCarthy have challenged the middle by presenting them with traditional american stories told in contemporary ways. Annie Proulx and Delillo are among others who have done so as well. And in the process inspired many of our younger popular writers from today. Frazen, the late DFW, etc etc.
yeah dude, they slamed the shit out of him in the article. Him and Palahniuk both.
I'm not sure about The Road in movie form because the reason the book was good was because of the writing style. The movie is going to be two hours of people walking.
That's what I'm mostly interested in seeing... if they figure out a way to successfully translate the book's style into a film format. They might somehow use imagery and cinematography to recreate, in a visual medium, the atmosphere generated by book's writing style. Could be interesting. Could also end up sucking.
Plus I'm sure they work the script to make things a bit more engaging than just two hours of people walking (hopefully they do, anyway).
What a bizarre thing to say. (the magazine quotation I mean)
You're... a mental man.
They could possibly make something worthwhile "inspired" by the book but to make a direct film adaptation is a terrible idea.
Loved the book. No Country proved that a somewhat difficult book can be translated into a film. With some care, The Road could be adapted pretty faithfully.
The Road: I loved the book. I loved the AUDIObook even more. The movie is awesome.
Anyone slamming Palahnuik is probably right about SOMETHING though. He's a shock value whore that needs a gimmick to get through a page of text. He is a one trick pony that has been P-L-A-Y-E-D the fuck O-U-T. I will never, ever, read a novel as bad as "Haunted" ever again and tell myself, "Oh, this has to get better later...it really can't be THIS bad the entire way through, can it?"
Fight Club was good, but the movie was actually better. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt MADE those characters work better than Chuck did. Everything Palahnuik has done since, say, Survivor has been beyond trash.
I liked Rant. A little. It being the only thing of his I've ever read.
Really I'm just irritated because I always wanted to call a book The Road and now I find it's taken.
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anyone who says McCarthy is "like Stephen King without the entertainment value" is an idiot
i mean, the guy's been compared to Faulkner, and with good reason in my mind (although he's not quite at that level)
So youve read . . one of his books? Read All The Pretty Horses, amazing novel.
The second coming of Faulkner, really. Blood Meridian oozes Faulkner.
If anything, McCarthy is King without the redundancy.
The last thing by King that I had contact with was the movie Secret Window. John Turturro's awesoness aside, I walked out of the film when I realized that, hey, this is The Shining all over again.
bwah?
they were completely different.
took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like rootbeer
Both eagerly looking forward to this and dreading it, if that makes sense.
Also: nice too see some OMAR love
Oh, I had some high hopes for Haunted, but that Godawful framing story was an abomination.
Nick Cave did the music for that and this.
Viggio looks better with a beard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94KcI0gLq1A
It looks different from how I pictured it. Looks like we've got 5 months until it's out.
My Backloggery
I'm pretty excited.
Edit: It's been a while since I read the book, but didn't The Man's gun only have one bullet?
The trailer is obviously trying to build a bit more hype around the thing, but what's in there seems pretty spot on from the novel despite it being cut as if it were The Day After the Day After Tomorrow.