Infinite Summer

Series? HBO/Alan Ball/6FU?

I like your idea of multiple directors. No flames here. And, send my respects to Zombie Frank Capra. I inadvertantly read that as Zombie Frank Zappa, LOLO, so send him my respects too.
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I really wouldn't want to see this happen. To me, so much of the joy of IJ are purely literary: the prose, the descriptive language, those little moments when DFW lets you into peoples head, etc. There are some set pieces that would lend to good film making (i.e. the Eschaton, Gately fighting with the Canadians) but I think most of the ideas and concepts in the book lend themself much better to literature. What major studio would finance an at least 3 hour film with no tidy resolution? They would ruin it to make it marketable (which would be pretty ironic, but that's another story). If they were able to somehow make the film true to the book (say a miniseries),a lot would still have to be sacrificed, but my choice for director would be Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). I love David Lynch, but he's more of an auteur who has his own vision and style and better working from his own ideas - Dune was a disaster when he tried to adapt it.

I like the idea of a HBO or Showtime mini-series or even a season length show (10-12 episodes). Alot of the inner thoughts of the characters could be voiced over, ala "Dexter." A few people have mentioned Spike Jones, but I would submit that his cohort, Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, etc), would be the ideal choice for the screenplay at least, if not directing as well. His attention to detail is second to none.

I've always imagined Wes Anderson directing in my mind, also inspired by the Royal Tenenbaums.
I can't help but imagine Dominique Pinon as Marathe, as he is French and played a wheelchair-bound badass in Alien: Resurrection.

Putting aside reality, I think an HBO miniseries would be the best way to go, and I'd only really be comfortable with Paul Thomas Anderson directing it. Magnolia is very DFWesque I think and his adaptation of Oil! was fantastic, so I trust him with a story that's not his own.

But there's little discussion here on who would be cast in it. I'm having trouble coming up with anyone... Mickey Rourke as Don Gately? but he's too old. Oh but Samuel L Jackson would be an awesome Roy Tony. The scene where he gives Eredy a hug would be one of the greatest moments in television (or film) history.

And I bet the debate on which actress could best play the PGOAT would go on forever.

Was catching up on an episode of Friday Night Lights (and if anyone had ever suggested I'd like a show about small town Texas football culture this much, well....) and realized there is a pretty rich vein of young actors there. The most obviously transferrable one, to me, is the actor who plays Landry, a character with some attitude in common with Pemulis. I have no doubt he could play Pemulis in a heartbeat, althoug, strangely, I am curious if he might actually be able to pull off Hal. That ETA is so male and white on the page means that the actor who plays Smash (though I wouldn't fault Hollywood too much if they pulled the otherwise cheesy trick of deciding to read "the darkness" as an excuse to make Ortho black -- this actor has a playfulness that might match the character who is apparantly able to crack up fellow students easily with imitations of Tavis, for example) or several of the actresses would be harder to use, but the rest of the high school cast could populate the academy easily. And some damn good adult cast there, too, although, except for casting the actor who plays Buddy as Joelle's "own personal daddy," I'm not sure what to do with them.

Elsewhere, there is one actor I'm not sure how to use but would like to for the simple reason that whenever I see him, I think he looks like DFW (though doesn't act like him), and I always kinda think of Gately as looking like DFW....don't know his name but he plays the fighter guy on Leverage and I first noticed him on "Angel" where he played Lindsey...Come to think of it, how about Amy Acker as Madame Psychosis?

If Forrest Whitaker was younger, I'd put him in as Gately. Who is the young (and, I guess, white) Forrest Whitaker of today?

ETA: reading another post on another thread, which reminded me that both Weeds and Supernatural also have some good fodder for ETA

A series certainly seems like the most appropriate approach though Wallce has provided enough material to last well beyond a single season. While reading endnote 304 last night I was struck by the fact that it could constitute an hour episode on it's own.

Perhaps a multiple director scenario would be workable as well given the right mix with say one responsible for directing the Ennet House scenes, another for the Marathe/Steeply scenes and so forth.

Christian Kane. But he can't be Gately! Gately is freakishly large. (I picture him looking sort of like the Kingpin from Marvel comics.)


Aw, you don't want her to get typecast as "beautiful girl who becomes hideously scarred" do you?

Not to rely too much on Royal Tennenbaums, but I always pictured Avril as looking kind of like Angelica Huston.

Oh, and I love the idea of different directors each taking a section then scrambling it up.

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