From
Shelf Awareness
You know those "Now a Major Motion Picture" medallions publishers stick on every book adapted as a film? They bug me because some of my favorite literary adaptations have been lower-budget indies destined for limited release. "Now a Minor Motion Picture" needs its own sticker.
Okay, maybe not. But this is the time of year--call it Movie Spring--when I watch for signs of promise on the adaptation horizon, starting with the Sundance Film Festival. This hobby provides some respite from the prize-giving obsession (Golden Globes, Oscars, etc.) over last year's releases and is a great way to discover some new reads.
One of the more publicized Sundance entries was C.O.G., based on a story from Naked by David Sedaris, who called the film "haunting... and it's painful to be reminded of how pretentious and horrible I was."
Beyond Sundance, other literary adaptations attracting some early attention are David Wong's John Dies at the End and a pair of James Franco-directed efforts: Cormac McCarthy's Child of God and William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
My own developing must-see list includes upcoming film versions of Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down, Patricia Highsmith's The Two Faces of January and Ron Rash's fine novel Serena.
Major? Minor? Who cares? William Safire once called Elmore Leonard's Be Cool a "bestseller and now a minor motion picture." Doesn't sound so bad, does it? I just want to see the book sticker. --
Robert Gray,
contributing editor, Shelf
Awareness
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