Viggo goes on The Road?

// September 13th, 2007 // fun

Viggo Mortensen in Lord of the RingsSo I read this book last year called “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, which was utterly brilliant, my favorite  book from last year and I believe it also won a Pulitzer.

I honestly don’t know how you can turn that book into a movie, but Hollywood thinks it can and they seem to have locked up who the lead actor will be in it: Viggo Mortensen, from Lord of the Rings.

Now he seems like the perfect guy for the father in this book, so that makes me a little more confident about the whole thing. Another McCarthy book was just turned into a movie called “All the Pretty Horses” which looks pretty interesting. I’d like to read that one as well.

Viggo has this to say about it all:

“There’s a book called ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy. They’re going to make a movie of that and the people making [it] have expressed interest [in me]. Visually, it’s going to be a very beautiful movie. It’s a very good story…It’s mainly about a father and a boy. It’s a post-apocalyptic scenario, a wasteland that they’re trying to get through and not be killed by the few remaining packs of marauding humans. They’re trying to get to the coast and find someplace safe and find people who are not crazy criminals or cannibals.”

So there you have it. If you haven’t read the book, I suggest you do. If you haven’t seen Viggo in Lord of the Rings, then ugh :)

12 Responses to “Viggo goes on The Road?”

  1. Scott says:
    September 13, 2007 at 10:04 am

    I just saw that on RT and was popping over to post it here.

    I think Viggo is a great choice. Loved the book, and am hoping the movie at least comes close.

  2. Mike says:
    September 13, 2007 at 10:11 am

    A lot of walking and nothing happening in the book…should make for an interesting movie. I am actually hoping they stick close to it, cause part of the experience is the utter desolation and nothingness of the world they find themselves in.

  3. Auntie says:
    September 13, 2007 at 11:50 am

    I just finished that book! Viggo will make a great father!

  4. Mike says:
    September 13, 2007 at 11:58 am

    Wow you read it? I’m impressed! What did you think? (without giving away spoilers?)

  5. Auntie says:
    September 13, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    Well,…the dialogue has to grow on you. But I ended up enjoying the style. Which makes me wonder what dialogue the screenwriter will put in. Second I kept wondering what the apocolyptic occurrence was. But then the cause of the apocoplyse isn’t important, it’s what happens to humanity afterwards that is the center. The father/son relationship was well written.
    So, who do you think will play the part of the son?

  6. david says:
    September 14, 2007 at 6:57 am

    Interesting, Mike. I was just pimping how I thought movie renditions of the Border Trilogy would make good film fodder over at ASFN. All the Pretty Horses stunk for the reason that I, like you, wonder how you can adequately transfer a McCarthy story to film. His prose and descriptives are so grandiose, youd think a director would have a hard time conveying the feeling in film. Horses failed becasue it was a love story first and all the visual took a back seat. Ill have to read the Road and you need to read Blood Meridian.

  7. Mike says:
    September 14, 2007 at 7:59 am

    YES! Blood Meridian! I’ve heard of that…how does it relate to Horses?

    And that’s too bad it sucked, I was interesting in seeing it.

  8. D.L. White says:
    September 14, 2007 at 5:06 pm

    Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll add it to my reading list. I’ve never read any Cormac McCarthy. I did see the “All the Pretty Horses” film. The pacing was sloooooow…

  9. david says:
    September 15, 2007 at 9:45 am

    Youve heard of it Mike, becasue I recommended it to you a year or so ago when you were talking about the ROad in ASFN. Im Schutd. Blood Meridian, honestly, sounds a lot like your description of the Road. Two “men” early teens, head west in the late 19th century, and join up with a vigilante band of men that go scalping indians as payback for all their uprisings in the west. Pages and pages of stark barren descriptives, where not much happens, and then 10 pages of smack you in the face crazy action, and then pages and pages of descriptives and introspections. Typical McCarthy stuff, but I loved it.

  10. Mike says:
    September 16, 2007 at 12:20 am

    Oh I knew you were Schutd :) Yes…that will be the next book I read…just need to finish On The Road by Kerouac :)

  11. Mike says:
    November 28, 2007 at 11:14 am

    David,

    Not sure if you are subscribed to these comments still or not, but I tried to get through Meridian and had a tough time. The writing is even more difficult than The Road…

    I’ll pick it up again though, I know I will…but I had to take a break and read a “fun” book for awhile :)

  12. Charlize Theron joins Viggo Mortensen on ‘The Road’ says:
    January 16, 2008 at 5:01 am

    [...] from the first day I heard it was going to be made into a movie and that Viggo Mortensen would play the lead character of the father. I can’t tell you how fantastic a choice it was to pick Viggo for this [...]

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