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Left pane: Cormac McCarthy; Bottom right: Guy Pearce and John Hillcoat.

[digg=http://digg.com/movies/Hollywood_McCarthy_Mania]Gooood morning finger lickers! As I write this with bed head of astronomical proportions there is glorious sunshine streaming through my windows. Aaaaaaaaaah spring is here film fans. And with it comes news of the latest Cormac McCarthy silver screen adaptation. While slurping a moca-frapa-capa-latte in Starbucks with good friend and fellow Finger Lickin’ contributor Mark this weekend; we discussed my recent article about Literary Arrogance and McCarthy’s work in general. After our chat, I got intrigued and did some high profile investigative journalism (googled it) and found that the very book I am currently reading, McCathy’s The Road, is now in production.

The book and therefore undoubtedly the film, though you can never trust Hollywood, is a tale of a father’s struggle to save the life of his son in a cannibalistic post-apocalyptic America. While I am only half way through the book, I am totally gripped. The prose is beautiful and exquisitely descriptive and I hope that Joe Penhall, who penned the screenplay, will be able to deliver the same flavour. Cast in the role of the father is the brilliant Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence) and the casting of his son has caused a X-Men style who-ha in recent days. As many of you, I’m sure, are aware X-Men Origins: Wolverine was forced to change shooting schedule and this has caused a clash in young Kodi Smit-McPhee’s (brilliant name btw.) diary. Kodi was originally destined to play young Logan in Wolverine but sensibly, in my opinion, has decided to drop the Wolverine flick in order to work with The Road’s Australian director John Hillcoat.

So what else do we know about The Road, well not very much other than the following folks are attached to the project Viggo Mortensen, as I said, Charlize Theron, playing his wife, Robert Duvall is rumoured to be involved and Guy Pearce has an IMDB credit with no character name. Likewise, due for release in 2009 but currently still in development by Ridley Scott is McCarthy’s 1985 Western, Blood Meridian. In an interview with nymag.com Scott has the following insight about the literary adaptation:

It’s about the end and the turning point for the American Indian, but it’s a pocket in that time — and it’s a hard one because it’s a wonderful read, and I think it should be kept that way. When one makes a film, you’ve got to make it like the read.

It would seem that with big names like Scott, Mortensen, Peace and Theron involved in adapting McCarthy’s work that this spree of adaptations might continue, should it prove to pay well at the box office. Which, after the success of No Country for Old Men, I can’t see being a problem for The Road. All I can say is that I hope they are as faithful to his original text as No Country because it seems to have been the Coen’s courage in not contorting the story into a Hollywood mould that has been so successful.

That’s it from me… I’m off to the shops in some glorious sunshine.

K

[digg=http://digg.com/movies/Literary_Arrogance]Evening Finger Lickers! While lounging in the bath this afternoon, yes it was a very lazy day, I was reading the Times Book supplement and came across an article by David Baddiel about the Academy Awards. Regular Finger Lickers will know my feelings about the Oscars and so I don’t want to dwell on the subject in too much depth, however, I felt that this article deserved a mention.

I have no real feelings about Baddiel either way, I have never read one of his books and have never been a particular fan of his stand-up shows. However, I began the article with neither positive nor negative feelings towards the man. He begins his analysis of the proceedings discussing the swing in recent years from “good book, bad movie” to “good book, good movie.” He then continues to explain how significant it is that the three extremely sucessful films at this year’s Oscars Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and No Country for Old Men are extremely faithful reproductions of the original text. Going as far as suggesting that Cormac McCarthy’s book was so cinematic in nature that he alludes to McCarthy doing the Coens (love them Coens mmmhmm) job for them. His parting shot is to suggest these filmic adaptations provide a “literary experience” rather than a “cinematic experience” and here’s the passage that really annoyed me:

This is what I mean by a literary experience: you feel challenged, subverted, disturbed and a bit alienated by the movie. You don’t cry, or punch the air, or shout “you go, girlfriend” or think “cool” in response to a really big explosion. Thus it’s more like reading a post-modern novel than going to the cinema. And thus it has won a lot of awards.

What complete and utter literary arrogance, yes this film undoubtedly owes a good deal of its success to Cormac McCarthy’s original text. That I am not disputing. However, the utter arrogance, to suggest that the experience he describes is made up of facets only found in post-modern fiction. Indie film has been pushing the boundaries of mainstream cinema for decades by challenging, subverting, disturbing, and alienating its audience through alternative forms of storytelling. This mainstream success by a film with indie hallmarks is not solely due to its literary roots. It owes a great dept of gratitude to a huge number of indie films that have paved the way and acclimatised the mainstream audience to a different form of cinematic experience. The suggestion that this film owes its Oscar success to its ability to provide a literary experience is absurd, not only because it demonstrates dreadfully narrow thinking, but also because it highlights the author’s utter lack of knowledge about cinema.

K

[digg=http://www.digg.com/movies/Hats_off_to_them_Coens]Afternoon Coen fans! I’m going to keep this brief because I’m not really in favour of the hype the Oscars gets and I don’t really want to draw any more attention to them than is really necessary. However, I felt it was of great importance to tip the metaphorical finger-lickin’ hat to the astounding Coen brothers. No Country For Old Men, my favourite film of the year to date, garnered four Oscars at last night’s ceremony and quite frankly nobody deserved it more.

The Coen brothers have been inspirational for a whole generation of filmmakers and while Fargo was also rightly recognised by the Academy, No Country for Old Men is a masterpiece and a truly brilliant return to form. So, Ethan and Joel, if you’re reading this, which you’re not, but if you are… congratulations on four every well deserved Oscars.

K