Film Rights

[Matthew P Wiener]

>As a film maker and veteran of both 'giant hollywood majors' and left
>wing 60's film co-ops a la _Vineland_ (yes, an accurate historical
>portrayal - what else would you expect?) , my first, delighted,
>reaction to _GR_ was, "At last! A novelist who has, intentionally and
>knowledgeably, subverted any attempt to bring his work to the
>screen!"  Pynchon is about images from WORDS, not photographs.

Uh, doesn't pataphysical type stuff count?  The point of a lipogram
novel, say, would kind of not translate to the screen.  Oh, there are
_other_ things one can play games with in film--like Hitchcock in ROPE
--but it gets murky.

>Well ... maybe the world's greatest animator, with the US defense
>budget, and Robin Williams doing all the voices, devoting a full
>lifetime to the project ...... nah ...  Pynchon wins!

I recall being surprised that WHO CENSORED ROGER RABBIT? was made into a
film, and didn't think it could possibly work, and I was right.  Spielberg
reinvented the story from scratch to reflect the change in media, yet he
managed to capture the essentials anyway.

So I think a GR film is possible--but it's not going to be anything we'd
think of offhand.
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)