Talks of adapting Jack Kerouac’s generation-defining novel On the Road for the big screen have been going on for decades – as far back even as the 1980 when Francis Ford Coppola purchased the film rights for $95,000. Even Gus Van Sant had his hands on the rights for years and years, but of course, his vision was never realized. It’s been known for a while now that Brazilian director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) is the latest on board to give the adaptation a shot and according to Production Weekly, filming is set to begin this summer.
They also give the very first word on casting, saying that Garrett Hedlund in talks to play the object of Kerouac’s strange fascination, Dean Moriarty. Who is Mr. Hedlund, you ask? Well, I wasn’t too sure myself, but after a quick check on IMDb, I recognized him as the tight end with the alcoholic father in Friday Night Lights, a part which I remember him being fairly good for an actor I had never seen on the screen before. Other movies he’s appeared in include Eragon, Troy, Four Brothers, and a leading role in the upcoming TRON Legacy. Could his role in On the Road be a career maker? That remains to be seen.
As for director Salles, as I wrote about back in October, he is attached to direct an adaptation of the Pennsylvania steel-town set novel, American Rust – something I am very excited to see, because 1) I’m rural Pennsylvanian born and bred 2) the novel was one of the best that I read all last year, having a very Cormac McCarthy and John Steinbeck vibe to it, and 3) as I was reading it, I had vivid visualizations of it as a film and it was glorious. No word on if Salles has dropped that project or just postponed his work on it.
I would have killed to see a Gus Van Sant On the Road.
I read this book (The ORIGINAL SCROLL) over the holidays, and would love to see how anyone would attempt this quite sprawling narrative into a single feature. As is always the case with dense novels, I’d love to see a 10 hour HBO mini on the book.
According to Wikipedia: “Sam Riley will star as Kerouac’s alter ego Sal Paradise. Garrett Hedlund was cast as Dean Moriarty. Kristen Stewart was cast as Mary Lou. Kirsten Dunst will be playing Camille. Filming started on August 2, 2010. Filming will take place in New Orleans, Montreal, Mexico and Argentina with a $25 million budget”
I’m rather curious to see how this will turn out. I absolutely adore the novel, one of the best beach vacation books there is, but I’m not totally opposed to an adaptation. I think, as usual, will fail to capture what the novel does, but if they try to simply keep it thematically in line rather than simply emulate the novel, it could be interesting.
I hope they use the original names (see: Original Scroll) rather than the pseudonyms from the original publication of the novel!
I read the Original Scroll also, so I am in agreement. Then again, if they DIDN’T use the original name, it might be easier for me to detach myself from it, were it to be a less than mediocre adaptation.
According to the IMDb page though, it looks like they are going with the pseudonyms.