I did a screen play of Lancelot for a grad class, but botched it pretty
badly. I'd like to get back to it someday, if I could ever finish the
never-ending dss.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 5:24
PM
Subject: RE: [percy-l] Production of _A
Confederacy of Dunces_ falls apart
I think Lancelot would be a good film, but, then again, I
think tha most
of his books would make good movies. Didn't someone write a
screenplay to
Lancelot?
-David
On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 Robert_Pauley AT oxy.com
wrote:
> Many have tried, mostly with The Moviegoer. We held film
option rights
> for The Last Gentleman for a few years. We did not
encounter the
> "entanglements" alluded to in recent post on aborted
"Confederacy" film
> project but instead general chariness among studios
regarding a Percy
> adaptation. We have a good script that balances
cinematic needs and
> loyalty to Percy's story and faith, and remain
interested in the
> project. Should anybody have any leads toward
private financing ($1-5
> million) of film of this great novel feel free
to email me privately at
> rrpjr AT netzero.net. Regards, R. Pauley,
Providence Productions.
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
>
[mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Steve L. Dye
>
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 6:34 AM
> To: 'Percy-L: Literary and
Philosophical Discussion'
> Subject: RE: [percy-l] Production of _A
Confederacy of Dunces_ falls
> apart
>
>
> On a
related subject, I have had the fantasy that a couple of Percy's
> books
might be turned into films some day.....my picks would be "The
> Second
Coming" (Harrison Ford and maybe Anne Heche or Drew Barrymore)
> and
"Love in the Ruins" with Jack Nicholson playing himself in the lead
>
role as Tom More...:) This fantasy, obviously, goes back a few
years.
> Both Harrison and Jack have now aged out of the
roles...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
>
[mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Wade Riddick
>
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 7:38 PM
> To: Walker Percy List
>
Subject: [percy-l] Production of _A Confederacy of Dunces_ falls apart
>
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/movies/27gree.html>
>
> In the Grip of the South, Where the Film Tales Are
> By DAVE
KEHR
>
> Published: October 27, 2004
>
> The
director David Gordon Green went to New Orleans last year looking
> for
a
> movie, which eluded him. But he found a home.
>
> As
luck would have it, Mr. Green's much-anticipated film version of John
>
Kennedy Toole's cult novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces," collapsed in a
>
mire
> of legal, financial and personal entanglements that appear to
have
> doomed a
> project written by Steven Soderbergh and Scott
Kramer, for a cast that
> was
> to include Will Farrell, Drew
Barrymore, Mos Def, Olympia Dukakis and
> Lily
> Tomlin.
>
> "I think it's shelved until either somebody dies or everybody gets
paid
> off," said Mr. Green, a 29-year-old whose 2000 debut film,
"George
> Washington," was a dreamlike portrait of childhood in the
South that
> made
> the tour of the world's film festivals and has
since received the
> ultimate
> accolade: a deluxe DVD edition
from the Criterion Collection.
>
> While scouting locations in
New Orleans, where "A Confederacy of Dunces"
> is
> set and was to
be filmed, however, Mr. Green bought what he calls a
> "1919
>
shotgun doublewide" house that, once fixed up, will become his first
>
adult
> address. An Arkansas native, he has been living out of suitcases
and
> sleeping on couches since "George Washington" lifted him out of
North
> Carolina, where he attended the North Carolina School of the
Arts in
> Winston-Salem.
>
> Besides sinking roots in New
Orleans, Mr. Green also managed to edit
> "Undertow" - his third
feature, after "All the Real Girls" last year-
> which
> was shot
in the summer of 2003 and was released last week by
>
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's United Artists unit on a handful of screens
after
> its
> well-received New York Film Festival
premiere.
>
> The picture continues Mr. Green's exploration of
the South, but
> introduces
> some new elements to his languid,
lyrical style. Filmed in and around
> Savannah, Ga., the film follows a
teenager (played by the young British
> actor Jamie Bell, from "Billy
Elliott'') and his fragile younger brother
> (Devon Alan) as they flee
the evil uncle (Josh Lucas) who has slit the
> throat of their father
(Dermot Mulroney) in a dispute over a cache of
> gold
>
coins.
>
> "I wanted to go a little heavier in this one and show
a little bit
> more,"
> Mr. Green said, comparing "Undertow" with
"George Washington" and "All
> the
> Real Girls." "With the first
two movies I was very much going for
> something
> slow and
poetic. And here, I wanted to take some of that same execution
>
but
> bloody it up a bit."
>
> It is also the first time
that Mr. Green worked from a script he did not
> originate. "Undertow"
came out of a program conducted by the legendary
> filmmaker Terrence
Malick ("Days of Heaven," "The Thin Red Line") at the
> University of
Texas in Austin. Mr. Malick and his partner, the veteran
> producer Ed
Pressman, formed a company called Sunflower Productions to
> develop
screenplays outside the Hollywood mainstream.
>
> "We had a
coterie of young writers out of the university, and we paid
>
them
> a little bit of money to try screenplays," Mr. Pressman
remembered. "
> 'Undertow' was something Terry had the idea for based on
true life
> events,
> and he gave it to Joe Conway" - a high
school English teacher who also
> played on Mr. Malick's amateur
basketball team. "We had seen 'George
> Washington' before it was
released, and so Terry showed David the draft.
> We
> talked about
it for a long time, and then David did his own draft, and
> the
>
film evolved from that."
>
> "It was a script that worked within
certain formulas and genre
> conventions," Mr. Green recalled. "What we
were going for was to make
> something like an off-kilter 'Huckleberry
Finn' or 'Treasure Island,' or
> like the Hardy Boys books. I remember
having a box full of old books
> when I
> was 12, the kind that
have a cover illustration of kids with a lantern
> looking down a cave -
these awesome, odd mysteries and adventures.
> That's
> what I
really wanted this to feel like, and so when I read the script
>
with
> its true-crime horror I wondered how we could bring out the
fanciful,
> hyperreal boy's adventure in it, almost to bring out
elements of fairy
> tales, like 'Hansel and Gretel.' So a lot of it was
to take something
> based
> on actual incidents and bring a
fanciful frame to it."
>
> By living and filming in the South,
Mr. Green celebrates the world he
> grew
> up in. "I'm inspired
less by specific movies and books than I am by
> sitting
> on a
porch listening to somebody,'' he said.
>
> "Given the choice for
an evening's entertainment,'' Mr. Green said, "I
> want
> to go
and listen to some old man I don't know, who comes from a place
>
I've
> never heard of and has a story to tell that I don't believe. I
can pay
> my
> 10 bucks and see a movie anytime, but how often do
you get that
> face-to-face encounter, with those accents and
exaggerations that only a
> great liar can conjure? And I think this
movie was my reaction to the
> stories of good liars."
>
>
But how easy is it to find those eccentric, individual voices in an
>
America
> increasingly standardized by Wal-Marts and cable
television?
>
> "It's easy in my neighborhood," Mr. Green said,
returning to his New
> Orleans raptures.
>
> "In fact, it's
hard to get away from them. It really is!"
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> An archive of all list discussion is available
at
> http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail
>
> Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
>
> --
>
> An archive of all list discussion is available
at
> http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail
>
> Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
>
--
>
> An archive of all list discussion is available at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail
>
> Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
>
>
>
David
Beck
If you treat an individual as he is, he will
remain as he
is. But if you treat him as
if he were what
he ought to be and what
he could be,
he will become what
he
ought and
could
be.
Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
--
An archive of all list discussion is available at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail
Visit
the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
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