Butler's Script Sale of the Week...
June 17th, 2001
Well, it looks like the studios didn't snatch up enough scripts during the pre-strike rush (or maybe they just took a good look at all the crap they bought) as we logged around 25 sales this week at SU. Not many of the sales stand out too much, but there were a few: Jim Sheridan's EAST OF HARLEM, Ted Humphrey's untitled drama, THE BURIAL, and THE KEY MAN. And, yes, I must admit I'm a bit curious as to what BEVERLY HILLS COP IV is all about.
My pick of the week is Fox Searchlight's acquisition of novelist Alex Garland's sci-fi script 28 DAYS LATER. The pic is set to be directed by Danny Boyle (TRAINSPOTTING, 1996) and produced by Boyle's longtime producing partner Andrew Macdonald. The pair were also responsible for THE BEACH (2000), which was based on Garland's novel of the same name.
Now, I think Garland is an extremely gifted writer. The Beach was a generation defining novel that subtly captured the fantasy fueled angst and misdirection of "Gen X". This will be Garland's first stab at a screenplay. To his credit, he didn't write the screen version of The Beach. We have Boyle's and Macdonald's writing partner John Hodge to blame for that (as well as Boyle and Macdonald).
I used to be a huge fan of the Boyle, Hodge, Macdonald filmmaking trio. Their first flick, SHALLOW GRAVE (1994) was a highly effective and original thriller. I can't say anything about TRAINSPOTTING (1996) that hasn't been said before (and probably far more eloquently than I could manage). Even A LIFE LESS ORDINARY (1997), while far far from a perfect film, was original and daring. However, with THE BEACH the trio not only tripped up big time, but also seemed to be selling out to the Hollywood powers that be. Garland's novel deserved much better.
Their first mistake with THE BEACH was to pass over their longtime partner in crime Ewan MacGregor for Hollywood darling Leonardo DiCaprio. Now, I'm not going to bash Leo. He was a great actor before the whole TITANIC (1997) thing and I still think he is. I just wish that in his determination to follow up TITANIC with something meaningful he had had the foresight to see that his very involvement in the project would be detrimental to the success of the adaptation (I'm talking artistic success, not box-office). Of course, actors aren't supposed to have foresight. Producers are. In this case, Boyle and Macdonald did not.
I was excited when I heard they would be adapting The Beach and was heartbroken when I finally saw the film. The lead character, Richard, is English in the book. I had hoped they would have had Leo play him that way. They didn't. Making him American stripped the film of the symbolism that the characters who were American carried in the novel. And the addition of not one, but two Richard (Leo) sex scenes, when there were none in the book was a pure and utter Hollywood sellout for which Boyle and Macdonald should be severely ashamed. It again stripped the story of meaning as the Richard in the novel was a bit of a geek - a day-dreaming, experience hungry example of Generation X. The sad thing is that they could have easily played the sex scenes as figments of Richard's imagination and thus satisfied their studio bosses and preserved the integrity of the story. They didn't.
But that's all in the past. Maybe they've seen the error of their ways and can hop back on the cinematic track they started on with SHALLOW GRAVE. I'm hoping that Garland brings the same artistry to a screenplay that he brings to a novel and I'll be curious to see how he attempts that with 28 DAYS LATER, a sci-fi thriller which concerns the outbreak of a deadly global virus. And maybe Boyle and Macdonald can bring their old friend Ewan back into the fray for good luck. If he's not too busy with that other sci-fi pick he's working on, that is.
-- Edward Butler
My pick of the week is Fox Searchlight's acquisition of novelist Alex Garland's sci-fi script 28 DAYS LATER. The pic is set to be directed by Danny Boyle (TRAINSPOTTING, 1996) and produced by Boyle's longtime producing partner Andrew Macdonald. The pair were also responsible for THE BEACH (2000), which was based on Garland's novel of the same name.
Now, I think Garland is an extremely gifted writer. The Beach was a generation defining novel that subtly captured the fantasy fueled angst and misdirection of "Gen X". This will be Garland's first stab at a screenplay. To his credit, he didn't write the screen version of The Beach. We have Boyle's and Macdonald's writing partner John Hodge to blame for that (as well as Boyle and Macdonald).
I used to be a huge fan of the Boyle, Hodge, Macdonald filmmaking trio. Their first flick, SHALLOW GRAVE (1994) was a highly effective and original thriller. I can't say anything about TRAINSPOTTING (1996) that hasn't been said before (and probably far more eloquently than I could manage). Even A LIFE LESS ORDINARY (1997), while far far from a perfect film, was original and daring. However, with THE BEACH the trio not only tripped up big time, but also seemed to be selling out to the Hollywood powers that be. Garland's novel deserved much better.
Their first mistake with THE BEACH was to pass over their longtime partner in crime Ewan MacGregor for Hollywood darling Leonardo DiCaprio. Now, I'm not going to bash Leo. He was a great actor before the whole TITANIC (1997) thing and I still think he is. I just wish that in his determination to follow up TITANIC with something meaningful he had had the foresight to see that his very involvement in the project would be detrimental to the success of the adaptation (I'm talking artistic success, not box-office). Of course, actors aren't supposed to have foresight. Producers are. In this case, Boyle and Macdonald did not.
I was excited when I heard they would be adapting The Beach and was heartbroken when I finally saw the film. The lead character, Richard, is English in the book. I had hoped they would have had Leo play him that way. They didn't. Making him American stripped the film of the symbolism that the characters who were American carried in the novel. And the addition of not one, but two Richard (Leo) sex scenes, when there were none in the book was a pure and utter Hollywood sellout for which Boyle and Macdonald should be severely ashamed. It again stripped the story of meaning as the Richard in the novel was a bit of a geek - a day-dreaming, experience hungry example of Generation X. The sad thing is that they could have easily played the sex scenes as figments of Richard's imagination and thus satisfied their studio bosses and preserved the integrity of the story. They didn't.
But that's all in the past. Maybe they've seen the error of their ways and can hop back on the cinematic track they started on with SHALLOW GRAVE. I'm hoping that Garland brings the same artistry to a screenplay that he brings to a novel and I'll be curious to see how he attempts that with 28 DAYS LATER, a sci-fi thriller which concerns the outbreak of a deadly global virus. And maybe Boyle and Macdonald can bring their old friend Ewan back into the fray for good luck. If he's not too busy with that other sci-fi pick he's working on, that is.
-- Edward Butler
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