Tuesday Top 10 is hosted by The Broke And The Bookish. The difficulty this week wasn't to find ten titles, but to limit myself to ten. I have a very visual mind, so seeing images on words isn't hard for me. Here are my picks.
1-Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: I see eyebrows raising already. It's doable, but would have to be a trilogy. Remember, it was first published as three shorter novels. A director with an eye for colors and a serious tone could do justice to Murakami's work. I'd pick Fernando Meirelles.
2-Chuck Palahniuk - Invisible Monsters: This one has been in discussion for a long while. Jessica Biel was rumored to be in. This novel is an absolute riot. Not as challenging as Fight Club, but it's a lot wilder. Someone who can REALLY shoot action and fast pace could do this. Guy Ritchie would be my choice.
3-Joan Didion - Slouching Toward Bethlehem: I'm thinking about ten ways you can adapt this already. I would articulate the movie around the title essay and make allusion to other texts. This would be the California movie to destroy all California movie. I'm not sure why, but I'd give this job to Richard Linklater. He's good a presenting "tainted" stuff. Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve could pull this off also.
4-Norman Mailer - The Deer Park: He might be a little old for this, but I think Jason Lee would BOMB as Sergius O'Shaughnessy. There is already a stage play made out of it, so it would be easy to adapt. This could be a good adaptation to put Brian De Palma back on track.
5-Willa Cather - The Professor's House: A movie adaptation (and a slight modernization of the setting) could help giving this amazing novel a greater audience. Sadness and melancholy are hard subjects to deal with, visually, so I'd leave this one in able hands. The Coen brothers or even Michael Mann. I'm not crazy about him, but he has a keen understanding of pacing.
6-David Foster Wallace - Forever Overhead & Other Stories: The movie for Brief Interviews With Hideous Men wasn't BAD per se, but it took a liberties with the stories. I would have done it otherwise and built from the story "Forever Overhead", which is one of the best short stories I have ever read. It sets a tone for the book. Jim Jarmusch would be all over that one.
7-David Foster Wallace - Derivative Sport In Tornado Alley: I have this weird idea of weaving short stories, novel chapters and essays from DFW and create a movie about his life and work. Since everything is so interwoven in his case. I think it would be the only way to truly represent what he does. Derivative Sport In Tornado Alley is about his love for tennis and would be another great starting point for a movie.
8-Francois Avard - Pour De Vrai: One of the best Quebec novel I've read. A morally bankrupt writer trying to revisit (read ransack) his past for inspiration OR a morally bankrupt writer who invents a life for himself (English Title: For Real) . You chose. It would be complicated to shoot, but a patient filmmaker with a quirky sense of humor could do this one. Not too sure who I would give this difficult project to.
9-Dennis Lehane - Darkness, Take My Hand: There is already a Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and an Angie Gennaro (Michele Monaghan). Let's recast Bubba and take on the grittiest story of the Kenzie/Gennaro cycle. Give the commands to Ben Affleck again, he did a fine job with Gone Baby Gone. Or better yet, get Clint Eastwood to shoot it.
10-Philip K. Dick - Ubik: Word is that director-extraordinaire Michel Gondry is working on it. This is good news, this novel fits him perfectly. Expect a headache and an amazing puzzle to solve. This is colorful in language and in action. There is nothing to dislike about Ubik. I'm pumped for it already.
