On the Road – Kristen Stewart joins the adaption of Jack Kerouac’s classis

Back in April news came out that Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) was going the direct On the Road. This adaption has been in development hell for years, but things are moving forward. We knew Garrett Hedland (Tron Legacy) is going to play drifter Dean Moriarty and Sam Riley (Control) is down to play, Sal.

Now it looks as if Moriarty’s wife has been cast in the shape of Twilight’s Kristen Stewart.

She had this to say while talking to USA Today. “I am very much attached to a movie that has been trying to get made forever. Not that this is going to help it, but maybe I can just brag a little bit. I am super excited about it, too. I am about to play Marylou in On the Road. So that’s a big deal.”

Not sure if these are the right choices for the film, but that could just be because they don’t fit with the look of how I always imagined the character.

Still there is one good thing about the casting. It should make a whole new generation look into the works of Jack Kerouac and anything that gets people reading new things is cool in my book.

How do you feel about the casting news?

On The Road – Garrett Hedlund could play Dean Moriarty in Kerouac’s classic

Jack Kerouac’s On The Road is one of the classic tales from the beat generation. I read it way back in university and enjoyed it – never read it since though. Turns out Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights to the book way back in the seventies, but it has been a long journey to get it near to the big screen.

Now Empire have the news that Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy) is in talks for the role of Dean Moriarty.

Coppola hired Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles and scriptwriter Jose Rivera way back in 2005. Now it looks as if the film may begin shooting this summer. We shall have to wait and see.

I don’t really see Hedlund as Moriarty. Just doesn’t seem the right choice for the role, but what do I know.

One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur – Trailer for Documentary about the writer

I hadn’t heard of Curt Worden’s documentary until now even though it has been knocking around since last year. It doesn’t look like it has had a general release and is not yet out on DVD. Even if you are not a fan of Kerouac’s writing it still looks like a fascinating documentary.

He was called the vibrant new voice of his generation — the avatar of the Beat movement. In 1957, on the heels of the triumphant debut of his groundbreaking novel, On The Road, Jack Kerouac was a literary rock star, lionized by his fans and devotees. But along with sudden fame and media hype came his unraveling, and, by 1960, Kerouac was a jaded cynic, disaffected from the Beat culture he helped create and tortured by self-doubt, addiction and depression.

He secretly retreats to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s rustic cabin in the Big Sur woods. But his plan is foiled by his own inner demons, and what ensues that summer becomes the basis for Kerouac’s gritty, yet lyrically told, semi-autobiographical novel, Big Sur.

The story unfolds through the narrative arc of Kerouac’s prose, told in voice-over by actor and Kerouac interpreter, John Ventimiglia (of HBO’s The Sopranos); through first-hand accounts and recollections of Kerouac’s contemporaries, whom many of the characters in the book are based on such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady and Michael McClure; by the interpretations and reflections of writers, poets, actors and musicians who have been deeply influenced by Kerouac’s unique gifts like Tom Waits, Sam Shepard, Patti Smith, Aram Saroyan and Donal Logue.

Source: Quiet Earth