Possibly watchable: HBO has optioned Jeffrey Eugenides' MIDDLESEX for an hour-long series produced by Rita Wilson. It's been a big Hollywood year for the Pulitzer Prize winner (and Brown alum!); a big-screen version of his short story "Baster," which originally appeared in the New Yorker, has been filming this spring with Jason Bateman, Patrick Wilson and Jennifer Aniston.
I shudder to think what HBO's advertising team will do to promote this show after recently slathering New York with "Pimp" and "Ho" posters for "Hung."
4 days ago
4 comments:
If Deadwood is any indication, HBO will blow through the events of the book by the end of the first season, and spend subsequent seasons following the characters throughout the rest of their lives. That's a good idea, generally, only I found the backstory of Middlesex - the war in Eastern Europe, the voyage to America, settling in Detroit and the family growing slowly more Americanized - to be far more interesting than the parts of the book that focused on Cal. Presumably, the series would follow Cal's life beyond the end of the novel . . . stuff in which I would have far less interest. But I applaud HBO's ambition and hope to be pleasantly surprised.
I had no idea Deadwood was based on a book. Go figure.
If they wanted to, HBO could pace all the events in the book over, say, two seasons and plan to end the show there. (But if it bombs like "John from Cincinnati" we'll never see that second season.) There's also the option of inventing more backstory for the second season, which could be very good or completely ham-fisted.
The novel on which Deadwood is based is very good - its by Pete Dexter, whose best-known novel is probably 'Paris Trout.'
What you're describing is a sort of Godfather situation, where the sequel expands upon the original in both directions. It would be unfair to expect HBO to do it as masterfully as Francis Ford Coppolla, but there is so much fertile ground there, and I think they could expand upon the original narrative, especially if Eugenides contributed in some way.
Another way to do it would be to have the backstory take place over the first season and focus on Cal in the second season.
Splitting the backstory and Cal's life might be cheaper to make and make more sense for people who hadn't read the book, but I think it would be a mistake to go that route. It's been a while since I've read the book but I think it's important to the narrative that those two storylines are juxtaposed.
In any case I hope Eugenides is involved, although the buzz on the playwright HBO has found to exec produce (Donald Margulies) is good.
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