REVIEW: Walter Salles’ adaptation of “On The Road”, the Kerouac classic, ‘explodes like spiders’ across the screen

October 29, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Reviews 1 Comment

In 1957 American author Jack Keroauc wrote to Marlon Brando asking him to buy the rights to, and star in, Kerouac’s novel “On The Road“. Brando never replied and it took another twenty two years for Francis Ford Coppola to purchase the rights and then spend decades hiring different screenwriters all of whom tried, and failed, to adapt the notoriously tricky spontaneous prose; after all, even Kerouac knew the story could not work on screen, telling Brando “Don’t worry about the structure, I know to compress and re-arrange the plot a bit to give a perfectly acceptable movie-type structure … ” Fifty five years after Kerouac’s letter, Brazilian director Walter Salles has finally succeeded in being the one to take the unfilmable and turn it into a thoughtful character study – one that burns and explodes, but ultimately, still remains too long.

Watch: two new clips give us a glimpse into the lives of Sal and Dean “On The Road”

May 24, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Videos Leave a comment

Walter Salles’s “On The Road“, the long-awaited adaptation of the Jack Keroauc classic, may have premiered yesterday at Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews but for those of us who have to wait until closer to the release dates to watch the film, we have two newly released clips giving us a glimpse into the big screen lives of Sal, Dean, Marylou and Camille.

An adaptation thirty years in development, the film finally moved into pre-production in 2010, with Salles behind the camera and Garrett Hedlund as the wild and crazy Dean Moriarty and Sam Riley as our protaganist Sal Paradise, the dreamer searching for the elusive It.

With a great supporting cast including Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams and Tom Sturridge, “On The Road” still has no definitive release date for the US, although we’re sure it will be looking at an awards friendly date. Lucky European fans can see the film on the big screen from today and over the next few months.

Full Cannes 2012 Lineup: “Twilight” invasion, Sarah Gadon on double Cronenberg duty and the return of Jessica Chastain

April 18, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Awards, General News Leave a comment

The official Cannes Film Festival lineup has finally been unveiled and looks like we can expect a more than usual number of up and coming young actors to head to the French Riviera next month. As expected, teen phenomenon “Twilight” will be well represented with stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart each headlining a Cannes-bound flick for the very first time. Pattinson stars in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Don DeLillo novel “Cosmopolis”, while Stewart plays a supporting role in Walter Salles’ long-gestating, highly anticipated adaptation of Jack Kerouac classic “On the Road.” Also perhaps hoping to shed that teen idol image and gain some serious acting cred at the festival is former “High School Musical” star Zac Efron, who stars in Lee Daniels’ “The Paperboy.” Daniels’ “Precious” played Un Certain Regard two years ago and went on to earn a boatload of Oscar nominations.

“Cosmopolis”, “On the Road” and “The Paperboy” will all play in competition and will be eligible for awards at the end of the festival. “On the Road” will also bring to Cannes promising young talents Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund, as well as a return for last year’s Best Actress winner Kirsten Dunst.

Meanwhile, Pattinson’s “Cosomopolis” co-star Sarah Gadon, also a first-timer, will represent not one but two Cronenbergs a the festival. In addition to “Cosmopolis”, she is also the star of David’s son Brandon Cronenberg’s first feature, the futuristic sci-fi thriller “Antiviral”, accepted into the Un Certain Regard lineup for this year. “Antiviral” co-stars “X-Men: First Class”‘s Caleb Landry Jones.

Also pulling double duty this year is returning vet Jessica Chastain, who wowed with her performance in the Palm d’Or winner “The Tree of Life” last year. She returns this year as an Oscar nominee touting two films, the animated “Madagascar 3″ and John Hillcoat’s Prohibition-era drama “Lawless” (previously titled “The Wettest County in the World”, and not to be confused with Terrence Malick’s next feature). “Lawless” also stars Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf and recent “Chronicle” breakout star Dane DeHaan.

Other up and comers we’ll be keeping an eye on include Bella Heathcote in Andrew Dominik’s “Killing Them Softly”, Michael Shannon’s reunion with “Take Shelter” director Jeff Nichols on “Mud”, and Sundance breakout star Quvenzhané Wallis of “The Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

We here at Up and Comers will be at Cannes for the very first time this year too, so expect news, reviews and exclusives straight from the Croisette!

See the full line-up of films below.

Watch: highly anticipated first trailer for Walter Salles adaptation of the Kerouac classic “On The Road”

March 9, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Videos Leave a comment

One of my most anticipated films this year is Walter Salles adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s generation-defining novel “On The Road”.

An adaptation thirty years in development, the film finally moved into pre-production in 2010, with Salles behind the camera and Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley in front as Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise.

This evening, the official Facebook page released the first trailer and I have to admit that despite my many, many, reservations Salles may have just about pulled this one off.

It’s slick and highly stylised (and I’m wondering where the promised black and white is), but Riley looks convincing as Sal, Jack Kerouac’s semi-autobiographical character who goes on a journey of booze, drugs and self-discovery, and Hedlund as Moriarty (based on real life Beat icon Neal Cassady) looks to have nailed all of Cassady’s mannerisms.

With a great supporting cast including Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams, we’re looking forward to the reviews coming out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival where the film is expected to premiere.

Watch the trailer below, and let us know your thoughts on this long-awaited adaptation.

First poster and new stills of Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart in “On the Road”

February 29, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images Leave a comment

After more than thirty years in development, a big screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s iconic “On the Road” is finally headed to theaters this year. British up and comer Sam Riley plays Sal Paradise, Jack Kerouac’s semi-autobiographical portrait of a Beat Generation writer who goes on a journey of booze, drugs and self-discovery with his best friend, Dean Moriarty, played by Garrett Hedlund and based on real life Beat icon Neal Cassady. Kristen Stewart joins them for part of the journey as Dean’s wife Marylou, and others including Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Sturridge and more meander in and out of the path of the two friends.

The new stills show Riley doing what Paradise does best, writing and wandering, while the poster, unfortunately, mostly looks like a messier and more nonsensical version of the artful and understated teaser poster released last May. The concept is there, but the execution has us scratching our heads and wondering why a magical rearview mirror is floating in the sky.

Nevertheless, the Walter Salles directed film has been receiving very positive early buzz and is expected to bow at the Cannes Film Festival this May, with a France release date to match, while we’re betting a date that’s a little more Oscar-friendly is being eyed for its US release. See the poster and new stills below.

First poster for Walter Salles “On The Road” adaptation

May 17, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images 1 Comment

One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year On The Road, Walter Salles adaptation of the classic Beat Generation novel, finally has a poster to tease us with … although it doesn’t give away much.
Looking more like a book cover to us, we don’t see how this poster will entice in a new audience other than fans of the book (whilst the filming of the book may have been controversial to a lot of fans, we’re sure they’ll be heading to their local cinema to watch this)

Salles has assembled an exciting young cast of up and comers for the project though, including Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty and Sam Riley as protagonist Sal Paradise, and Kristen Stewart, Elisabeth Moss, Tom Sturridge and Kirsten Dunst as well as Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams. The poster also looks like Salles has kept his promise to film in black and white – although previously released shots were in colour so we may be looking at a mix of both.

source via Playlist

Click below the cut to see the full length poster and let us know your thoughts in the comments

More Beat Generation icons headed for the big screen; Josh Lucas, Kate Bosworth join “Big Sur”

April 15, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Die-hard fans of Beat Generation authors are still trying to brace themselves for the impending release of a big screen adaptation of Kerouac classic “On the Road” – a tricky thing given the unique structure of the book – and now, more bad news. Deadline reports that Michael Polish has set his cast on an adaptation of “Big Sur”, a follow-up of sorts to “On the Road” that detailss Jack Kerouac’s move from the East Coast to California after finding himself unable to deal with the sudden fame thrust upon him following the success of “On the Road”. Jean-Marc Barr will play Kerouac, Josh Lucas will be Neal Cassady and Kate Bosworth will be Billie, the woman linked to both authors.

Walter Salles was the first to break the unspoken rule that Kerouac and other Beat authors’ works can’t be translated to the big screen. After years in development, “On the Road” – about a young man’s journey across North America in pursuit of jazz, poetry and drugs – finally went into production last year with British actor Sam Riley as Sal Paradise, the fictional representation of Kerouac himself and Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty, aka Kerouac’s good friend Neal Cassady. The film, which also stars Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams and Viggo Mortensen, is currently in post-production aiming for a 2011 release.

“Big Sur” is currently in production and also has Anthony Edwards, Rahda Mitchell, Balthazar Getty and Henry Thomas cast in supporting roles.

First look at Garrett Hedlund in “On The Road”

November 18, 2010 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images 2 Comments

There’s mixed opinion on Walter Salle’s adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel “On The Road” here at upandcomers but these first pictures of Garrett Hedlund in the iconic role as Dean Moriarty may change some minds.

Based on protagonist Sal Paradise’s journey across North America in pursuit of jazz, poetry and drugs, director Walter Salles adaptation finally went in to production back in the summer, after years in development. Also starring numerous fellow up and comers such as the likes of Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Tom Sturridge and Elisabeth Moss, news and information has been scarce on this film.

New images have finally surfaced though, and it looks as if Salles has kept his word that “any version of ‘On the Road’ done correctly would need to be shot in black and white.” Hopefully we can take this statement, along with the images, to indicate that the entirety of this film will also be black and white!

Below the cut you can see the full size pictures of Hedlund as Dean, as well as previous set pictures including Sam Riley as Sal, and one of Hedlund, Riley and Sturridge with John Allen Cassady, the real offspiring of Beat Generation icon Neal.

walter salles