Saturday, July 14, 2012

Meryl should be in feature film adaptation of "The Corrections"

I recently read Jonathan Franzen's novel The Corrections.  You remember it.  It's that one Franzen didn't want Oprah to include in her book club because he thought Americans were too dumb for it.  Prior to starting the book, I had read the back cover and done a little research to see if there had ever been or were any plans for adaptations of it.  I wasn't surprised to find a Wikipedia article which included plans dating as far back as 2001 to adapt the book into a film.  As you can read, the rights to the book were purchased by Paramount, but not until late 2011 did news come that HBO was going to air it as a sort of mini-series in 2012.  Dianne Wiest was cast as Enid, Chris Cooper as Alfred, Ewan McGregor as Chip, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Denise.   As far as I know, a pilot was filmed, but HBO decided to pull the plug and not air the series.

Sooooo...I'd like to be the first person to suggest that Meryl should be cast as Enid in a film version.  Obviously HBO didn't think it was going to work as a series (I'm sure there are several factors), and studios were initially interested in it as a film.  Why not retry this great story as a movie? If you've read the book, you know it's rather long if one considers any kind of possible screen adaptation.  But I'm sure good writers could work out a way to meld the juiciest sections into one cohesive, coherent story.   I would've loved to see how HBO was going to tackle it, but hopefully they'll release it at some point.  Or perhaps someone will upload a pirated version on the web.

 Dianne Wiest is actually a great casting choice.  However, it already didn't work once, and if it's a few years before they try this again, maybe Meryl's our Enid.  Keep in mind, I've already decided that Meryl will be winning her 4th Oscar in 2014 for August: Osage County.  If she's going to break Katharine Hepburn's record of four (a must), maybe The Corrections could be the film to do it ten years or so down the road?!  Certainly there are going to be multiple opportunities in the next several years and a nomination for August isn't even a sure thing.  But hey, can't a guy dream?





2 comments:

  1. Reading the play and obsessing over rest of cast. Heard a rumor Dianne WEist might be up for MattieFae. Is that true? Anymore news on Andrea Riseborough still playing Karen.? Ken

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    1. I'm currently reading the play too and it's fantastic. Yes, I've heard the rumor of Dianne Wiest as Mattie Fae and I think she'd be perfect for it. But those rumors are pretty old. That said, she's the only name I've ever read mentioned. The only "concrete" news I've seen is that Andrea Riseborough is still on board. Heard a couple unconfirmed blurbs that she has a scheduling conflict, but only time will tell. Thanks for reading, Ken!

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