Filming The Road.

Speaking of great literature being adapted into film, another movie that may give Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a run for its money this year is The Road directed by John Hillcoat, who made the gritty Australian western The Proposition.

I came across this New York Times story about the final days of shooting the film version of The Road starring Viggo Mortensan (of naked knife-fight fame in Eastern Promises and naked stair-humping fame in The History of Violence) and 11-year old Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee.

In the article Hillcoat states:

“What’s moving and shocking about McCarthy’s book is that it’s so believable. So what we wanted is a kind of heightened realism, as opposed to the ‘Mad Max’ thing, which is all about high concept and spectacle. We’re trying to avoid the clichés of apocalypse and make this more like a natural disaster.”

The article also states that screenwriter Joe Penhal (who also adapted the psychological thriller Enduring Love starring Daniel Craig in 2004) stayed close to the elements in Cormac McCarthy's novel.

Being a tremendous fan of the book, that's a relief to hear. Let's hope Hillcoat also stayed away from product placements with Spam or Del-Monte canned peaches. I'm hoping Penhal and Hillcoat also chose to keep the gruesome cannibalistic basement scene in the film as well.

It was also interesting to read that most of the filming took place in Pennsylvania - most notably Pittsburgh and Erie - because 'it offered such a pleasing array of post-apocalyptic scenery.'

Nice.

It's also nice to read that Omar (Michael Kenneth Williams) from the hit HBO series The Wire is getting some much-deserved acting work too.

That said, I'm curious to see what the end product will look like in a dark theater, or my basement.