On the Road

[heavenlysurfer]

Title: On the Road
Log Line: Recounts Jack Kerouac's defining hitchhiking journey across the U.S. with Neal Cassady.
Writer: Jose Rivera
Agent: n/a
Buyer: Focus Features
Price: n/a
Genre: Drama
Logged: 8/5/05
More: To be based on Jack Kerouac's Beat classic. American Zoetrope will produce. Walter Salles will direct.


ahhh....at last...hope it's good!

[elephant1978]

Yeah, it's in good hands. But isn't this the most obvious choice of director...ever? And why would Salles want to go down the same ol' road again? (uh...no pun intended...sorta).

Ele...

[BottomlessCup]

I'm a massive Kerouac fan and I don't think it'll work.

Jack's books were good because of the writing, not the story. They'll either go exploitative or pretentious and either way, it's a bust.

If you're going to do a Kerouac flick, it ought to be a biopic - not a single adaptation. And if you must do an adaptation, "The Subterraneans" would work better as a film.

Please God, don't let them cast Keanu as Jack again.

[Hasil Adkins]

don't let them cast KeanuIt's going to Billy Crudup.

[BottomlessCup]

I approve.

And I wouldn't mind Thomas Jane as Neal again.

[Hasil Adkins]

They're looking at Colin Farrell, which I think is a mistake.

I remember ten or eleven years ago, there was an open call for this in NY. I went, waited from 5 am til about 2 pm in the freezing sleet and rain, just to drop off a picture and audio tape along with the thousands of other shmucks. I did get to meet the big man, though (if by 'meet' you mean exchange a hello and friendly nod as I dropped my pic on the huge pile in front of him).

[errorhead]

i heard Coppola is directing this one. any truth in this?

[Pendagger]

Coppola has been developing this for over a decade...I believe Russell Banks did an earlier draft of the script. I can't wait to see it, but as noted above, it may be difficult making this dramatic as the beauty is in the shotgun style of writing...the delivery. There's not much to the story itself...they'll just have to make some crap up.

[Sammy Glick]

I believe Coppola actually optioned the book 37 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I thought I spent too much time developing my script!

[joe9alt]

Why not James Franco or Ryan Gosling (with some hair dye) as Sal/Jack and Benjamin McKenzie or Michael Pitt as Neal/Dean.

Thomas Janes is too old to do Dean now, so is Matthew McConaughey....and all the names that have been talked about for the Sal role before.....Depp, Cage, Ruffalo, etc are now too old.

These characters were young and vibrant. They didn't have hair-plugs.

[BottomlessCup]

Why not James Franco or Ryan Gosling (with some hair dye) as Sal/Jack and Benjamin McKenzie or Michael Pitt as Neal/Dean.

I will burn down the studio on any of those. Especially Pitt. You'll see the flames from Vegas.

[joe9alt]

I will burn down the studio on any of those. Especially Pitt. You'll see the flames from Vegas.

What's the alternative? Unknowns....that could be cool but they won't do it. Other than that you'll be looking at a geriatiric Neal and Jack, which goes against everything On The Road was about. Cage's hair transplanter alone would cost as much as one of those young dudes.

[BottomlessCup]

Personally, I think Jack always looked kinda old. (Not old, I guess, but he never really looked like a teenager, either.)

Crudup will do fine as Jack/Sal, in my opinion. I'd rather an actor get the feel right than look the right age and suck. (Hence my objection to whiny-little-bitch Michael Pitt as Dean Moriarty.) So, I'd put Mark Ruffalo on my approved list for Sal.

Not to mention, by the time OTR takes place, Jack had been in the Merchant Marines, published an unsuccessful novel and languished in NY for a while. So, (youth-culture-milestone or not), they don't have to look 16. These guys lived hard.

As for Dean...

Jeeze. I'd hate to have to cast that role.

He needs an incredible manic energy and so much charisma the screen warps around him. Dean Moriarty is On the Road. If the audience doesn't fall for him as hard as Sal does, the whole thing skews horribly wrong.

Maybe an unknown would be best. Or not an unknown, but somebody who hasn't taken a starring role yet.

Depending on how long devo takes, Emile Hirsch might get old enough. He's shown some decent chops lately.

Jared Leto might be able to pull it off.

I don't know. It's a hell of a role to cast.


As for the rest of the crew, you can smell Adam Goldberg as Ginsberg from a mile away. Too bad Harry Dean Stanton is too old for Herbert Huncke.

[joe9alt]

Okay maybe the Michael Pitt suggestion was a bad one -- i take it back! Forgive me....but Jared Leto as Dean is almost as bad....then again i just got done watching Alexander so maybe my opinion of him is a little skewed. Dean wasn't necessarily a pretty boy, ya know....like a Leto type. The guy who would be perfect is Matthew McConaughey but like i said before he's probably too old at this point. Dean was younger than Jack, right? Would Josh Lucas work as Dean, now that we've greenlighted Crudup as Jack :cool:

[Hairy Lime]

i heard Coppola is directing this one. any truth in this?Obviously not since the above listing says "Walter Salles to direct." When having a conversation with some filmmakers on Friday, this came up and they incorrectly identified the director as John Sayles (Salles mispronounce is often "sales"). At that time I was very excited. When I saw that it was Walter Salles, I was less enthused. Sayles is a hippy and would knock this story out of the park. Salles is a Brazilian who has directed two very good films and a bunch of crap. Not sure why Salles was tagged for this considering the cultural barriers he faces from the source material.

[Jake Schuster]

Sayles is a hippy and would knock this story out of the park.

You're showing your age, Lime. Kerouac was a Beat. Hippies had an utterly different lifestyle and sensibility. I was present at both events... :cool:

[Hairy Lime]

Jake I know Jack was a beat. They are different eras, but both represent the antiestablishment. The point is that Sayles would be a brilliant choice to direct this film while Salles is suspect.

[Jake Schuster]

Apples to oranges, Hairy. Completely different relationship to the "establishment" in each case. Like asking Abbie Hoffman to do a biopic of Bogart, just because they both fought the system.

[Hairy Lime]

You're still missing the point.

[Jake Schuster]

Well, there's antiestablishment and then there's downright cool. The Beats (of which there were many, ranging in attitude and competence from Kerouac to Ginsberg, Lenny Bruce to Charlie Mingus, with lots in-between) were more of a lifestyle-based movement; hippies, on the other hand, were far more political, obviously far more to the Left than, say, Kerouac (who at least in his later years was downright reactionary).

All the Beats I knew in the 60s laughed at the hippies.

I'm not sure this would be right for Sayles. I think he's at heart a conservative filmmaker, and I think his heart lies in other projects of which I've heard the odd hint through a former producer.

[Hairy Lime]

Be contrarian if you must, but he's a far cry better choice than a Brazilian with two good films and a steaming pile of notworthwatching.

Of coruse Sayles choses his own projects and he probably wouldn't be interested in On the Road ... but if he were ... I'd be first in line.

[TwoBitHack]

The concept of a "John Sayles film" is always better than the actual work itself.

[BottomlessCup]

Dean was younger than Jack, right? Would Josh Lucas work as Dean, now that we've greenlighted Crudup as Jack?

Neal was four years younger than Jack.

Lucas might be okay. He looks right enough. I'm kinda neutral on his acting, though. (BTW, I can't resist pointing out that Matthew McCaughnehey (sp!)is only 14 months older than Josh Lucas.)

What about Ewen McGregor? I bet he'd jump at the chance. He just rode around the world on a motorcycle with a buddy. How "On the Road" is that?

[joe9alt]

Ewan could work -- McConaughey might be my #1 choice, though - age be damned. Ewan played a kinda lily white version of Dean in Big Fish already. I'm still not 100% sold on Crudup but i could live with the choice. Who would play Old Bull ya think? A bald shaved Bob Downey, Jr. maybe?

[BottomlessCup]

The more I think about it, you may have sold me on McC. They could make the ages look right with make-up and whatnot, couldn't they?

Old Bull... Downey has the right verve, but they'll have to beat him with the ugly stick a bit. (Or give him a pound of coke and let him rip...) It's kind of devilish casting, given his proclivities. I like it.

[UrbanSpice]

Old thread, but does anyone have any thoughts on this movie now that it is actually being filmed?

[Erina1216]

Old thread, but does anyone have any thoughts on this movie now that it is actually being filmed?

Isn't Garrett Hedlund in this one? He's becoming quite the new feature in Hollywood (Country Strong, Tron).

[peasblossom]

Ewan could work -- McConaughey might be my #1 choice, though - age be damned. Ewan played a kinda lily white version of Dean in Big Fish already. I'm still not 100% sold on Crudup but i could live with the choice. Who would play Old Bull ya think? A bald shaved Bob Downey, Jr. maybe?

I vote for Ewan or Thomas Jane (who can do manic, and I don't think he looks too old). Ewan can definitely do Manic!