Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Steve L. Dye" <sldye AT bluegrass.org>]

It has been interesting reading the messages regarding possible film
versions of Percy's work.  There appears to be some interest in such
endeavors.  I don't know that The Last Gentleman or The Moviegoer would
generate much box office "buzz",(I think they would  be extremely
difficult to transfer to film) but The Second Coming is such a wonderful
"love story" (for lack of a better description) that it could be done -
and make some money.  Lancelot certainly has the "melodrama" and
"passion" for the big screen, but I would almost guarantee that it would
come across as almost a parody of Percy's intentions.  But what do I
know?  It IS fascinating to "ponder", as we say here in the south. And
for me, Lancelot has always been the one Percy book I had the most
difficulty responding to.  Lancelot might have made it back in the 40s
or 50s with someone like Susan Hayward or Barbara Stanwyk and Fred
McMurray...or do I have it confused with The Postman Always Rings
Twice?????"  :) Or Double Indemnity???

-----Original Message-----
From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of David Alan Beck
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 7:25 PM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
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                    

--

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