GR (The Movie)

[David Marc Fischer]

>Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:40:52
>To: Peter Trachtenberg <tberg at echonyc.com>
>From: David Marc Fischer <davemarc at panix.com>
>Subject: Re: GR (The Movie)
>
>At 11:43 AM 9/26/95 -0400, you wrote:
>
>
>>>I think GR would be too much for any filmmaker, though maybe V or Crying 
>>could be adapted. The problem is that great novels usually make 
>>disastrous films, the former being about language and the latter using 
>>language only as a pretext for images. However, the director I'd match 
>>with Pynchon would be either David Cronenberg, who displayed great 
>>ingenuity and humor with Naked Lunch--it was a failure but an interesting 
>>failure--or the former Monty Python who directed Brazil.
>>> > 
>
>I don't think any Pynchon work is likely to make it into the motion picture
medium while TRP is still alive. 
>
>All of his lengthier works would, however, probably work best in the
television medium, where they could be serialized.  (I remember the buzz
when some friends and I heard about a mini-series named "V" and thought that
the impossible had become possible.)  Of course, not many television
producers have been ambitious and brilliant enough to pull off anything as
complicated as Lot 49, let alone Vineland, V., or GR.  
>
>One television director who seemed to have an affinity for Pynchon's
eclecticism was the late, great Dennis Potter.  I could imagine a production
like Twin Peaks in the sense that distinctive directing styles would be
utilized in different segments.  In fact, given the realities of television,
I'm sure the version any Pynchon enthusiast could imagine would be
infinitely better than any that would actually be produced!  
>