Hey folks, Harry here.... Has Russell Banks succeeded where so many other writers have failed? Has he managed to translate Kerouac's amazing ON THE ROAD into a filmable movie? Well, according to our spy at the University of Michigan, where Banks spoke yesterday, Banks not only claims that he has, but that Coppola has begun to nail down casting... and the casting is WAY GOOD! Read on.... Oh yeah, almost forgot, before I go, you might want to read one direction the script took a while back that AICN's own Dorothy Parker snagged a looksee at and reviewed at this location here!!! So check that out if you're trying to learn more....
First time contributor, long time reader. Let's get down to it. I'm a film student at The University of Michigan and earlier today I had the pleasure of attending a Q&A session with acclaimed author Russell Banks ("The Sweet Hereafter" and "Affliction"). As our professor introduced our guest, he happened to mention that Mr. Banks had been commissioned by Francis Ford Coppola in scripting yet another adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road".
Everyone in the class was enthralled, and the topic quickly moved from "Hereafter" (which is really what we were to be studying) to Kerouac. It appears that this is Coppola's fifth and final commission for the script because Russell Banks' version is what he's running with. That's right, after all the years that Coppola's had the film rights, "On the Road" is finally coming to the big screen. Banks mentioned that the script was accepted by Coppola after only a few revision sessions and that he believes casting for the project has already begun with filming set to begin in the fall.
According to Banks, Coppola has lined up Billy Crudup to play Kerouac(aka Sal Paradise) and a little-known art house actor by the name of Brad Pitt to play his friend, Neal Cassady(aka Dean Moriarty).
Just thought there might be some diehard Kerouac fans out there who wanted to know.
Later.
-Godzilla!
