Kasdan Catches King Bestseller
May 17th, 2001
KASDAN CATCHES KING BESTSELLER
It was reported by The Hollywood Reporter today that BIG CHILL director Lawrence Kasdan would be producing and directing an adaptation of Stephen Kings latest mega-seller DREAMCATCHER.
The book is often described as being about four young friends who perform a heroic act. What its really about, as anyone whos read it knows, is aliens, a whacked-out army man who calls himself Kurtz (with a nod toward Joseph Conrad and his creation) and the near end of the world.
DREAMCATCHER has a lot of potential as a movie. Hell, it almost is a movie. This is Kings most cinematically ready book since MISERY. That is, if youre willing to make it uncut (nearly impossible) and tell all the stories it lays out. Can this 600-plus-page behemoth be turned into a cohesive film?
I dont know how theyre going to cram it all into a two-hour movie. Theres the opening of the book. Where four friends are hunting and one almost shoots a man who is wandering in the woods. The man is odd, to say the least. He has terrible, boisterous gas, for one, and he cant account for his last twenty-four hours. Something is going down. We find out this guy has an alien inside of him. This section of the world is infected with a disease a disease the government finds out about and tries to shut down. This is a huge section of the book: Kurtz sets up shop in town, herds everyone he can find, and locks them up (with plans to do away with them). One of the four friends is among this group and with the help of a Kurtz underling gets away and tries to stop a certain alien-in-a-human-body (Mr. Gray) from doing something that would infect the world.
And it doesnt stop there! Theres the friends past and their mentally challenged friend (called Duddits). And Duddits special powers and the powers hes somehow instilled in the friends and...Do you see why I have a hard time figuring out how theyll do this?
William Goldman, now adapting his third King novel, wrote the script. Unlike with MISERY and LOW MEN IN YELLOW COATS (a.k.a. HEARTS IN ATLANTIS) Goldman has a panoply of material to choose from DREAMCATCHER is absolutely silly with great set pieces and characters (and not, as in those other two cases, short and with a straightforward narrative). Theres at least four movie-worthy stories happening in DREAMCATCHER which will Goldman choose to tell? If he takes bits and pieces of each I think the end result will be watered-down and worthless.
Kasdan is an odd, odd choice as director. This movie is going to be big, loud and sprawling. Theres plenty of action here and a lot of road-travel. Is he up for the job? Most likely. Kasdan is inspiringly diverse: he wrote and directed BIG CHILL and BODY HEAT, wrote two STAR WARS movies, two INDY JONES movies, and even wrote the hit flick THE BODYGUARD. The man can do it all, I guess.
I read a story that before MUMFORD was made Kasdan was shopping around an effects-laden alien script. I guess the alien bug was still in him and hell get it off his chest with DREAMCATCHER.
Stephen King is among my favorite authors. He hasnt written an unsatisfying book in my eyes and at this point hes on a career high. Despite what critics say, his books arent readymade for movies and I think this is the case with DREAMCATCHER (because of its intricacy and length; not because of its story). Unless they plan to make this a four-hour epic, theyre looking at a lot of confused moviegoers.
Darwin Mayflower
(Source: Hollywood Reporter)
It was reported by The Hollywood Reporter today that BIG CHILL director Lawrence Kasdan would be producing and directing an adaptation of Stephen Kings latest mega-seller DREAMCATCHER.
The book is often described as being about four young friends who perform a heroic act. What its really about, as anyone whos read it knows, is aliens, a whacked-out army man who calls himself Kurtz (with a nod toward Joseph Conrad and his creation) and the near end of the world.
DREAMCATCHER has a lot of potential as a movie. Hell, it almost is a movie. This is Kings most cinematically ready book since MISERY. That is, if youre willing to make it uncut (nearly impossible) and tell all the stories it lays out. Can this 600-plus-page behemoth be turned into a cohesive film?
I dont know how theyre going to cram it all into a two-hour movie. Theres the opening of the book. Where four friends are hunting and one almost shoots a man who is wandering in the woods. The man is odd, to say the least. He has terrible, boisterous gas, for one, and he cant account for his last twenty-four hours. Something is going down. We find out this guy has an alien inside of him. This section of the world is infected with a disease a disease the government finds out about and tries to shut down. This is a huge section of the book: Kurtz sets up shop in town, herds everyone he can find, and locks them up (with plans to do away with them). One of the four friends is among this group and with the help of a Kurtz underling gets away and tries to stop a certain alien-in-a-human-body (Mr. Gray) from doing something that would infect the world.
And it doesnt stop there! Theres the friends past and their mentally challenged friend (called Duddits). And Duddits special powers and the powers hes somehow instilled in the friends and...Do you see why I have a hard time figuring out how theyll do this?
William Goldman, now adapting his third King novel, wrote the script. Unlike with MISERY and LOW MEN IN YELLOW COATS (a.k.a. HEARTS IN ATLANTIS) Goldman has a panoply of material to choose from DREAMCATCHER is absolutely silly with great set pieces and characters (and not, as in those other two cases, short and with a straightforward narrative). Theres at least four movie-worthy stories happening in DREAMCATCHER which will Goldman choose to tell? If he takes bits and pieces of each I think the end result will be watered-down and worthless.
Kasdan is an odd, odd choice as director. This movie is going to be big, loud and sprawling. Theres plenty of action here and a lot of road-travel. Is he up for the job? Most likely. Kasdan is inspiringly diverse: he wrote and directed BIG CHILL and BODY HEAT, wrote two STAR WARS movies, two INDY JONES movies, and even wrote the hit flick THE BODYGUARD. The man can do it all, I guess.
I read a story that before MUMFORD was made Kasdan was shopping around an effects-laden alien script. I guess the alien bug was still in him and hell get it off his chest with DREAMCATCHER.
Stephen King is among my favorite authors. He hasnt written an unsatisfying book in my eyes and at this point hes on a career high. Despite what critics say, his books arent readymade for movies and I think this is the case with DREAMCATCHER (because of its intricacy and length; not because of its story). Unless they plan to make this a four-hour epic, theyre looking at a lot of confused moviegoers.
Darwin Mayflower
(Source: Hollywood Reporter)
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