House of Leaves movie is casting now...

[Minotaur]

As much I don't want there to be a film, I would absolutely go see it. Even if it was bad I'd probably buy the dvd, too. Does anyone know who has the film rights? Can you imagine a film labrynth something like a cross between momento, Time code and the brown bunny. How would you even do something like that?

[fearful_syzygy]

Does anyone know who has the film rights?

Try this thread.

If that doesn't answer your question (which is a distinct possibility), this interview definitely will (and you should read it anyway, if you haven't already).

Welcome to the forum, Minty.

[sutrix]

I'm surprised no one took that username yet. There's TheMinotaur, but still.

(Don't make any THAT jokes.)

(Don't.)

[THAT]

I'm surprised no one took that username yet. There's TheMinotaur, but still.

(Don't make any THAT jokes.)

(Don't.)

I'm sorry. What was THAT?

[sutrix]

What would've been surprising is if something like this hadn't happened.

[THAT]

What would've been surprising is if something like this hadn't happened.

You got THAT right!

[sutrix]

Don't make me shove that thing up yo ass, boogzie.

[Apung]

](*,) ](*,)
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Main point: the idea of HoL in movie form completely debases the entire idea and thought behind it.

Besides...you NEVER hear anybody say, "Oh, man! The movie kicked the ass of the BOOK! DDUUUUUDDDDE! Go see the movie! It's SOO much better than the book, even though your imagination can come up with SO MUCH MORE than some stupid fucking director.

...unless the director is MZD

...but we all know he's too good for that!

[elmago]

Besides...you NEVER hear anybody say, "Oh, man! The movie kicked the ass of the BOOK! DDUUUUUDDDDE! Go see the movie! It's SOO much better than the book, even though your imagination can come up with SO MUCH MORE than some stupid fucking director.

...unless the director is MZD

...but we all know he's too good for that!

Really?

How about Bladerunner, Fight Club, The Shining and The Green Mile, among others?

[Ra-ra]

Really?

How about Bladerunner, Fight Club, The Shining and The Green Mile, among others?

The Green Mile and The Shining were entertaining enough, but I wouldn't say they are on a par with HoL and aren't anywhere near as complicated, so how does that correlation work?

[katatonic]

I think he means that the movies were better than the books...

[Ra-ra]

Exactly - but the movies didn't have quite the same material to work from, did they?

[katatonic]

That's very true... I didn't mean that I in any way support a movie being made. The idea is preposterous.

[Ra-ra]

That's a great word, preposterous.

[katatonic]

Isn't it? I really should use it more.

[benedict]

it would be preposterous if you didn't...

[GemInEye]

Everyone says that it can't/shouldn't be made into a book, this I can understand. I've even thought about a film adaptation. The problem is that a lot of people see it as a straight-through film and that their aim is in the selection of characters rather than the selection of movie format in itself.

An abstract movie could in fact be made. It wouldn't be all too "mysterious" and filled with riddles in itself or deliberately... but on a psychological level it could.

The theater in itself could be set up specifically for the movie; I don't know how exactly but just think about it.

You sit before the normal large silver screen, ready for trailers and your usual slew of ads... But instead of white, you see black, the film already being projected in an endless 5-15 minute randomly selected loop. This goes on for about 15-20 minutes (the usual length for ads and trailers). I just said "randomly selected loop", this is what I mean:

A line will be drawn on the screen, in a dark shade of grey that traverses the screen. It will slowly create a labyrinth, a door, a house, a street, a tree, words will bleed in and out of the screen's murky blackness. You would see something but you wouldn't be too sure if you saw it... are your eyes deceiving you? Did your friends just see that dead cat? Or are those just clouds?

bleeds onto the screen, onto the curtains at the edges. Slowly. The reel spins and rips. The size of the screen needs to be changed, a pause... sounds. A growl, but from which direction? A child screams. Is it inside the theatre? A trailer for a movie starts. The word "house" is repeated in the trailer, but each time it is, the word swallows itself into silence, but you know they said it. By the time you realize this, you're looking at a door, an uneasy hand reaching for it... But you're not. Is it a silhouette on the black? Another growl. Loud banging. Your heart races, you try to control it, your mind reels. The curtains move, blood seeps in from the sides of the screen, falling into holes, dripping down... one droplet is followed as it flows over unseen words, painting them. Is it blood? Paint? What is this Minotaur? It goes silent. The screen is a pool of blood seen directly from above, a reflection of the Hi-8 looking down upon it... a lense, nothing more... The lense goes black, bleeds through, and you see a man laying on the ground, three deep scratches on the floor, scraps of paper. Words, more words, they fill the screen. Narration overlapping narration, trees of words forming, one into the next... Then the growl again, loud, louder than you can imagine. Is it raining outside now?

That's when Karen screams.

[monkeygra]

i think if there was a of Leaves movie starring Will Farrel and Angelina Jolie, directed by M. Night Shlamm-a-don, i would refuse to see it.

although, i've even had thoughts of how to make a movie of this myself. the way i would do it is, try to recreate The Navidson Record exactly as it is described in the book, and maybe (only maybe) intersperse it with sections of Johnny's story in a more conventional movie style.

and bottom line: no big-name actors.

(and GemInEye, what the hell are you on? that sounds way to pretentious and artsy-fartsy)

[Davinche]

Besides...you NEVER hear anybody say, "Oh, man! The movie kicked the ass of the BOOK! DDUUUUUDDDDE! Go see the movie! It's SOO much better than the book, even though your imagination can come up with SO MUCH MORE than some stupid fucking director.

...unless the director is MZD

...but we all know he's too good for that!

There are some great directors out their that can do things that people dont think is possible. Take Robert Rodriquez, look what he did with Sin City, everybody thought he was going to fuck it up like most people do with graphic novels but he did a great job.
I would not be suprised if this did come out as a movie and the movie turned out to be a good movie, though I doubt it would compare to the book.

[myk malice]

you would lose something in the translation without the footnotes and the actual physical turning of the book don't get me wrong i would see a movie if it were made but i think regardless of the talent behind the movie it would still be lacking a great deal of content .

upon further consideration... fuck a movie where was my head at ...of course not..NO MOVIE!!!!!

[sutrix]

Take Robert Rodriquez, look what he did with Sin City, everybody thought he was going to fuck it up like most people do with graphic novels but he did a great job.

He didn't do a thing, though. He simply took the comic's atmosphere and reproduced it because he knew that if he did not hordes of comic book (graphic novel, all right) fans would hang him upside down and beat his woogie till he could no longer claim to be a cowboy with a dick and would go by the monkier of penisless abomination with a cowboy hat.

And for the record, apart from the five or so seconds where the camera rolled up from Rosario Dawson's legs to her head, and bits and pieces of Mickey Rourke in the role of his life, the movie sucks.

[fearful_syzygy]

Jesus, sutrix, who's been pissing on your sugar sandwich all this time? Couldn't you have picked a sunnier day to come back to the forum? You certainly might have picked a better day to go banging on about penises (just kidding).

I don't see the justification in claiming that he 'simply' transferred the comic book to celluloid. Personally I think it was visually an extremely compelling film, and captured the 'atmosphere' of the other medium. On the level of plot and narrative you can say what you like; comic books are primarily a visual medium, and Sin City was primarily a visual film. As such, I don't think you can fault it (and certainly not dismiss it outright as you seem to do).

[julie]

Ok, I just got an assignement for Cinema class, where we have to imagine the movie version of a film and talk about whow we would do it, what problems we would have, character developpement, script, storyboard, etc....
It's sooooo tempting to do HoL!!
...... But I think the teacher has to have read the book first....and I'm not going to make him read HoL....lol


edit: fuck it. i'm doing it anyways

[sutrix]

Personally I think it was visually an extremely compelling film, and captured the 'atmosphere' of the other medium.

Well, okay, isn't that last part what I'm saying? Capturing the atmosphere isn't all that big a deal, especially when the source is as visual (as you said) as a comic book. I could name a ton of comic book adaptations which do the same. Yes, I'm sure it's damn hard work, but dozens of other directors have done it, so it's not as if he's the first and only.

Yes, sure, it was visually all right (I thought the specific color bits were overdone and should've been used sparsely, though), but Davinche's claim that Rodriguez did a great job is exaggerated. A hack like Michael Bay could end up with the same product if he stayed faithful to the source as well. Any director--Adam Sandler, for that matter--would end up with the same product. No point in glorifying Rodriguez, that's all.

[Ze Do Caixao]

I'm with Davinche and Syzygy on that one. Transposing a work in another medium is a very ungrateful task because it seems so easy yet it is full of challenges you would not face in a "free" work of creation. In the case of Sin City, of all the comic book adaptations that has been made, it must be the most successfully done (though Tim Burton's Batman was not bad either), staying faithful to the original work while making a new and interesting one.

And for Julie: I hope you're ready for some nuits blanches because HoL seems to me as the biggest challenge possible for an adaptation... I still wish you good luck for your assignement. Would you like to share your results ? I would like to read this (only if you want to, I will understand a no...).

[julie]

i'm in my last nuit blanche at this very moment, actually

We have a 2500 word limit, so I can't cover much, and plus the teacher hasn't read the book, so I have to to only exerpts (i chose the intro and exploration a / johnny's panic attack) AND I have to do it in french, with the Maison des feuilles version, which is wierd, despite the very good translation.

and I can't really go in depth, because you couldn't understand some aspects without having read it

So yeah, it's due at 8 am, it's midnight, and i'm half-way through it....woohoo!

( Ze Do Caiaxo: ouais! maintenant on est deux francophones nord-américains sur le forum, je crois )



edit: I did really good on it!

[AutomAton]

my quick wish list:

Navy: Alan Rickman
Karen: Kate Blanchett
Tom: James Woods
JT: Giovanni Ribisi
Lude: Ethan Hawke
Holloway: Ron Perlman
Wax: Barry Pepper
Jed: Ed Norton
Billy: David Allen Grier
Thumper: Kate Mara

Direction: Werner Herzog, George Clooney, or Tim Burton (although he seems to be losing his edge)

[Davinche]

Well this was a long time coming, I forgot you could scroll down.
Sin City is a movie that was created to show what could be done, and what was done turned out to be knew and interesting, "visually compelling". I, personally, found it to enjoyable to watch, just for the visual elements. You could say that any hack could stay faithful to the source, as Rodriguez did, but I doubt that many could pull it off the way he did. Now I never intended to glorify Rodriguez, he didn't do anything revolutionary, but he didn't do a bad job either, I was just trying to show what can be done when people say it cannot. So let's wait and see what he does with 300, (He uses the same visual elements as Sin City) then we can judge Rodriquez.

[sutrix]

Davinche, fair enough. Though I think that given his track record for making commercially successful but otherwise forgettable movies, I wouldn't expect a lot. I wonder how Grind is going to shape up.

Direction: Werner Herzog

He would be wasted on such a project. I get the impression that he doesn't dabble in puzzles--except the surreal Heart of Glass. But then again, I haven't seen every film he's made, so I don't know for sure.

[Cylinsier]

Navy: Eric Stoltz
Karen: Maria Bello
Tom: Nick Frost
JT: Christian Bale
Lude: Christian Slater
Holloway: Tom Sizemore
Wax: Ryan Gosling
Jed: Matt Damon
Billy: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Thumper: Charlize Theron
Chad and Daisy: Freddie Highmore and Elle Fanning
Zampano: David Strathairn
Palefina: Sissy Spacek

Directed by Christopher Nolan