Frames from Thomas Edison’s 1896 film,The Kiss
Some time since the last “Weekly Round-Up”, and we begin this, the first one of the New Year, with “Hollywood scoop” – more news on John Krokidas’ upcoming (2013) thriller, Kill Your Darlings (based around the David Kammerer murder). We (and everyone else) reported a while back on the inspired casting of Daniel Radcliffe (“Harry Potter”) as Allen Ginsberg, but wait, now we hear more – Jack Huston been slated for the Jack Kerouac part, Dane Dehaan to play Lucien Carr, Elizabeth Olsen (younger sister of tv’s “Olsen twins”) as Edie Parker, Jack’s “girl”… More news to follow.
Meantime, the “buzz” continues with Walter Salles’ On The Road movie. Dates now being announced, May 28, for its opening in France (which makes it more and more possible that it will debut, the previous week, at the Cannes Film Festival). Salles (and Jerry Cimino of The Beat Museum) are interviewed in a two-part interview here and here. Cimino quotes cast member Tom Sturridge – “It kind of knocks me out and I’m pinching myself that I’m playing Allen Ginsberg in this film”.
Had Kerouac got the casting he wanted, Dean Moriarty (the legendary Neal Cassady) would have been played by…Marlon Brando! (with Kerouac himself as Sal Paradise!). A letter from Kerouac to Brando has recently re-surfaced (it was auctioned in 2005 at Christies, along with other personal items from Brando’s estate, and realized $33,600) – “I wanted you to play the part”, Kerouac writes,” because Dean, as you know, is no dopey hot-rodder but a real intelligent (in fact Jesuit) Irishman. You play Dean and I play Sal (Warner Bros. mentioned I play Sal) and I’ll show you how Dean acts in real life, you couldn’t possibly imagine it without seeing a good imitation..”