Saturday, February 25, 2012

Books - where would The Oscars be without them?


Source Material: Breaking Down the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay

By - February 24, 2012
If the publishing industry really does collapse, as some predict it will, it won’t be the big houses or the independent bookstores that will be most affected, it will be Hollywood. This year’s crop of Oscar contenders begs the question “Can there be a cinema without books?” I’m skeptical. Try to imagine this year’s Academy Awards without Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close or Moneyball or The Descendants or The Help or Hugo. Even Midnight in Paris couldn’t exist without Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. Without books, Scott Rudin would have to have to find work as a dentist or something.
coverOf course nowhere is Hollywood’s literary addiction more apparent than the Adapted Screenplay category. This year’s crop of adaptations includes four movies adapted from books and one adapted from a play (The Ides of March). Since I haven’t seen live theater since I went to my friend’s improv show a year or two ago, I can’t comment on how faithful The Ides of March is to its source material. I can state with near certainty, though, that the guys who played the two leads on stage were not as good looking as Ryan Gosling and George Clooney. Call it a hunch.

Read the full piece at The Millions

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