In the final panels of 'return to key west' Ryan's reading the Patricia Highsmith novel 'The Tremor of Forgery'. Why? In addition to a having a vivid orange and black cover that worked well with the yellow and orange striped sheet Ryan's laying on and with the intense hot sunlight of these shots, I'm also just a bit obsessed with the book. The author of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' and the script for 'Strangers on a Train' tells a morally ambiguous, open ended (even for her) tale in this one. A writer goes to Tunisia to finish a screenplay for a studio and his world-and his world view-gradually, almost imperceptibly begins to fall apart, leaving him-and the reader-in some new unfamiliar place. It's a strange, engrossing book that bears a certain resemblance to 'The Sheltering Sky'. The North African desert seems to be a place where Westerners lose their way. Since discovering a copy at Powell's Books a couple years ago (it's out of print, but they have some in stock) I've purchased several copies and handed them all over to people-Ryan took this one on the flight home. I've been convinced there's a great movie there--so much so that when I saw Gus Van Sant at The Abbey in Los Angeles a few months back I threw back a couple recklessness-inducing cocktails and went over to him and assaulted him with a mini-pitch as to why he should direct it. I was totally convinced from the first time I read it that he would be the perfect director, and any of his regular guys could be the screenwriter--Damon, Casey Affleck. Actually, now that I think about it, James Franco would be great.
That's the kind of stalker I am--I approach directors with movie ideas they must do. A creative, script-clutching, d-girl kinda stalker.
All 'return to key west' posts here.
