Walter Salles

[MacGuffin]

Salles 'On the Road' to Zoetrope
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Walter Salles will direct the feature adaptation of the Jack Kerouac classic "On the Road," which is being produced by American Zoetrope.

Salles' "The Motorcycle Diaries" screenwriter Jose Rivera is adapting the book and Rebecca Yeldham, who executive produced "Diaries," will produce.

Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Rock and John H. Williams are executive producing.

The 1957 novel, which played a role in giving rise to the Beat movement, is narrated by Kerouac's thinly veiled alter ego Sal Paradise, who gets inspired to hit the road and see America. The story follows his ups and downs as he hitchhikes, hops trains, meets other travelers, struggles for meals and explores the themes of freedom and longing.
 
American Zoetrope has owned the film rights to the novel since 1979. According to Coppola, the novel has had many suitors over the years.

"The book is inherently difficult to adapt to the screen, and we've never quite found the right combination of director and writer to do it justice until now," Coppola said.

" 'On the Road' is a seminal book that gave voice to a whole generation -- capturing its hunger for experience, unwillingness to accept imposed truths and dissatisfaction with the status quo," Salles said. "It is as modern today as it was four decades ago."

Salles' boarding also reteams him with Focus Features and Pathe International, two companies that worked together on the director's award-winning "Diaries" and would jointly control the worldwide distribution rights to "Road."

Casting and production is expected to begin in 2006.

[Redlum]

I rewatched Central Station last night and it was just as great as the first time, perhaps more so with the anticipation of the powerful ending. Such an elegant film.

I love the simplicity. Particularly the fade to blacks at the end of each chapter - very similar to the episodic style of Chaplin (obviously The Kid). Certainly one of my favourite films of the last ten years.

[MacGuffin]

On the Road Exclusive
Director discusses Jack Keroauc adaptation.

IGN caught up with Walter Salles this week to discuss his new film Linha de Passe. However, we also took the opportunity to quiz the Brazilian director on his long-gestating adaptation of Jack Keraouc's On the Road. And he had some interesting things to say...

IGN: Is it daunting taking on a book as well-loved as On the Road?

Walter Salles: It's the same kind of pressure that was attached to making a film about the young Ernesto Guevara, except that in the case of The Motorcycle Diaries, that carried political weight that was difficult to deal with, because you had to find the right tone. He was a character that was still defining himself -- you could not anticipate the Guevara that you know from the poster. There was lot of work in actually defining the character.

IGN: So will you be looking to take the same approach to On the Road?

Salles: Yes, it will be an interpretation; it's not the journey itself. It's my own understanding of what that was and in order to prepare for that I did a documentary on the journey, following Kerouac steps, meeting the people who are still alive, from Michael McClure and Lawrence Ferlinghetti to Diane DiPrima and many others. At the same time, I am talking to the characters from the book who are still alive, and among them was an extremely sensitive and intelligent woman who lives in the UK, and that was Caroline Cassady, Neal's wife. So this research, which I should have also done for The Motorcycle Diaries -- I did it but didn't film it -- was really important to understand what connects that story from the 1950s to what we are living today.

IGN: Will we be able to see that documentary?

Salles: Yes, on television because the documentary was not made for cinema, but for television.

IGN: So shooting Dark Water hasn't put you off making another American movie?

Salles: No, because the conditions are completely different. This is a project with a filmmaker as a producer -- Francis Ford Coppola. It's just like Robert Redford was the producer of Motorcycle Diaries. The relationship that I had with Redford as a producer was one of the best I've ever had with anyone I've ever collaborated with. From the start, he accepted the idea that the film should be spoken in Spanish, that we should use non-actors and actors that were not very well-known at the time. He gave me constant input, but didn't impose anything. This created an ideal territory in which I was able to explore the film I wanted to make.

Hopefully we will be doing the same thing with On the Road. But there are many steps to be taken before the film becomes a reality. One of them is trying to fit the film into a budget in a country where the production rules are very strict. And I like to film with small crews and partly improvise -- Linha de Passe is 50% improvisational material. The idea was for you not to be able to figure out what was improvised. On the Road is really about living the moment, and that has to do with improvisation, and jazz almost.

IGN: Will you be using actors or non-actors?

Salles: That's a good question. We've started the casting process, but we are just at phase one. We do phase two in October so we'll know more then. There are some English actors that I am considering. We'll see -- they are very, very young; they are 16 in the case of Marylou, to 23/24. And again we are looking at actors who are not extremely well-known.

[MacGuffin]

Salles, Coppola finally hit 'The Road'
Stewart, Riley to star in adaptation of Kerouac's novel
Source: Variety

After numerous false starts, Walter Salles and Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Jack Kerouac's 1957 cult novel, "On the Road," is finally on the path to production.

French mini-major MK2 will exec produce the $25 million pic, which has long been a passion project of Brazilian helmer Salles and Coppola, who acquired the rights three decades ago.

Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund ("Tron: Legacy") will topline, with shooting due to start in August.

Riley will play Kerouac's alter ego, Salvatore Paradise, Hedlund is Dean Moriarty while Stewart will play his on-and-off wife, Marylou.

Coppola will produce via his San Francisco-based outfit American Zoetrope. Salles' Rio de Janeiro-based Videofilmes and the U.K.'s Film4 will co-produce.

Salles is re-teaming with the creative team behind his "The Motorcycle Diaries," including Film Independent's Rebecca Yeldham, who will produce, scribe Jose Rivera, d.p. Eric Gautier, production designer Carlos Conti and composer Gustavo Santaolalla.

Nathanael Karmitz and Charles Gillibert will produce for MK2, which will also handle distribution and international sales.

In the long haul to "On the Road's" inception, Salles travelled across the U.S. in Kerouac's footsteps and gathered enough material for a documentary, "In Search of On the Road," which is a work in progress.

Salles presented an hour of footage featuring interviews with beat poets and characters from the book at the San Francisco Film Festival in April, where he was feted with the Founder's Directors Award.

[MacGuffin]

Dunst joins Stewart 'On the Road'
Kerouac adaptation moves forward after years in development
Source: Variety

Kirsten Dunst has joined the cast of "On the Road," Walter Salles and Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel.

Cast also stars Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley ("Control") and Garrett Hedlund ("Tron: Legacy") who have stuck to the project through its long evolution, in some cases for a couple years, said Salles.

French mini-major MK2, which exec produces and handles international sales on the $25 million pic, has inked the first major distribution deals with European sellers including the Tele Muenchen Group's distrib arm Concorde Filmverleih for German-speaking territories and Cineart for Benelux. It's in negotiations for several major territories, including the U.K., Australia and the Middle East.

Pic has long been a passion project of Salles and Coppola, who acquired the rights three decades ago. Salles started developing the project in 2005 with Focus Features and Pathe Intl., which were set to handle worldwide distribution rights. But the pic couldn't get financed.

Now set up at MK2, pic is produced by Nathanael Karmitz and Charles Gilli-bert, whom Salles said "bring a vital, fresh, creative look into producing the film, and a very European approach based on their past experiences with independent directors."

Karmitz and Gillibert set up the film as Franco-Brazilian co-production to keep the budget in a reasonable range. "That allows us to tap into subsidies and ink some TV pre-sales."

Added the producers: "We anticipated a penury of indie films with strong commercial potential on the market, and 'On the Road' we think fits that bill perfectly."

In the long haul to getting "Road" to the screen, the director traveled in Kerouac's footsteps across the U.S. and gathered enough material for a documentary, "In Search of On the Road," which is in production.

"The film greatly benefited from the extra time we had to conceptualize it," said Salles. "The unedited scroll version was published recently and inspired a new version of the screenplay written by Jose Rivera that is at the same time more luminous, daring and muscular than the one we had at the start."

[squints]

fuck this shit.

[Robyn]

Apparently they start filming this Wednesday. This will surely be interesting and I hope for a good movie but i don't have any high expectations. I don't even see how it's possible to make a film of this book.

[The Perineum Falcon]

New images:

[squints]

hmm, i'm still inclined to say

fuck this shit.