Just received a submission regarding the Pattern Recognition movie:

Already accustomed to weirdness, producer Steve Golin (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is diving into the odd pool again with the rights to Gibson's latest novel Pattern Recognition.

I would not want to see a Pattern Recognition movie.
I've only read half of it and I don't even actually feel like finishing the book. This is the first Gibson book I've ever not liked. I felt bad about it but it's not like I should lie and say I like it. I don't care about the characters. They aren't interesting to me. The present day setting is kind of a turn-off since it's a little too accurate. The reference to 9/11 is annoying. I don't care about the strange footage,..
The effect the book had on me was actually like watching CNN or something.
I like all his other books. I'd love to see a movie based on any one of those. Hard edged, stylish, gritty, with just the right amount of excessive violence.
But I'm shallow.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jack Dynn:
I would not want to see a Pattern Recognition movie.
But I'm shallow.

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Not necessarily. Just young.

It is the easiest to film accurately, and touches many current subjects few authors touch. But it has more in common with Murakami than Walter Jon Williams.

Too many writers use excessive violence. A few of them use the right amount of excess (Banks comes to mind). Gibson will never go back to the Sprawl.

José

I'd watch it as long as Keanu is not in it.

Ah ya bast, you got there first with the news.

OK,

here's an URL to go with it

http://chud.com/news/mar04/mar31patt.php3

jaydee

I dont know, puritanincubus; Keanu could be quite good as Cayce

jaydee

Keanu as Cayce could be quite fun! I really do like that idea.

I had considered Winona Ryder as Cayce. When she gets the Blue Ant credit card she could say, "I don't need a credit card to go shopping!" Do you know how difficult it is to shoplift a Buzz Rickson's?

quote:

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Originally posted by jaydee:
I dont know, puritanincubus; Keanu could be quite good as Cayce

jaydee

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Whoa.

But seriously, the first time I read it, I would have agreed that it would make a poor movie. But while re-reading it this time, I think PR could make a truly beautiful film, as long as it was done with a proper attitude: alternately spooky and sweet, pulling together the sense of alienation fostered by commerce and global events with the human concerns of love and a good haircut.

Whoever deals with 9/11 first in a film should do it right. And I think PR could do it right. I have this recurring piece of ghost footage in my mind now after this reread: Completely silent, Cayce looks in the shop window in NYC at the flower; pov switches to the flower looking up at Cayce as an airliner flies overhead at low altitude, still silent; pov switches back to Cayce watching as a single petal falls; Cayce walks as people in the street point and stare; enters the German's hotel room with the pov on her face, totally mystified; pov swings around over her shoulder to see the towers burning.

If it's going to be done, and it will be done, then that's the kind of treatment 9/11 should receive on film. Not huge Bruckheimerian explosions and action sequences. The human element, the human reaction. It's not an action sequence; it's a trauma. And I think PR could do that right.

Does anyone know who's penning the screenplay?

Is it Gibson?

-chlywly

Yeah, Fashionpolice, Not only would I have Keanu play Cayce. I make him war her clothes (from what I recall, there would have to be very few changes)

jaydee

You know chlywly, I think I'd like Charlie Kaufman to pen the screenplay, he could do another one which demonstrates how impossible it is to adapt Mr. Gibson. We could have excepts from other of his Movies Like New Rose Hotel, and Johnny Mnemonic, preformed by totally diffrent actors, and lots of scenes of Kaufman tearing out what is left of his hair trying to achive this impossible task. And dream sequences of Charlie talking to his brother who solves the problem by inserting auperfluous action sequence at the end.

I dug up a filmography for Peter Weir (putative director)
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800023993&cf=movies&intl=us

and

Steve Golin

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0326512/

Cant see anything in Weir's history that might attract him to PR.

But Steve Golin was behind both Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Fifty First Dates. Both of which would have been sold as SF just ten years aqo, Both of which deal with lost memory and romance. So I can see his interest.

Anyway, knowing Hollywood there is a very small chance PR will ever be made.

More evidence

Looks like Hollywood might be serious about a Pattern Recognition film:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/04/04/for_original_work_producer_is_the_real_deal/

Optionning (is that the way to say it?) is good news, even though that doesn't really mean a movie will ever be made. *cough*Neuromancer*cough*

At the very least it will help our favorite very tall guy fed and off the streets. Maybe he'll even have some spare change for new pleated pants.

You're a Peach, Fashionpolice.

This couldn't be Steve Golin's production company, could it?

jaydee

ooops

try this instead.

http://www.anonymouscontent.com/anonymouscontent.htm

No, No. It is teh company. Conformation found at...

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/129/129106.html

now... who want's to be first to start pestering them?

My only concern (especially if it's coming from anonymous content) is that audiences will simply dismiss it as a riff on both Eternal Sunshine and Lost in Translation (not that anon con had anything to do with the latter) ... or worse, that production will be steared in that direction to capitolize on their popularity, and the result will be merely derivative. The tone and content of these movies are on similar wavelengths, and PR could suffer for following them to theatres, similar to the troublesome state a Neuromancer movie would be in at this point.

This is not to say that I think PR can't be made well (same goes for Neuromancer), just that I think it'll be hard to avoid.

Thanks for the info guys.
I’m a bit surprised that Peter Weir is interested in PR. I would have guessed there’d be one of the former music video directors attached, like Fincher or someone.
Weir isn’t a bad choice though, he’s a competent director and known for his diversity, as his this list clearly shows:

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Gallipoli (1981)
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
Witness (1985)
The Mosquito Coast (1986)
Dead Poet’s Society (1989)
Fearless (1993)
The Truman Show (1998)
Master and Commander (2003)

You're not the only one surprised at the Peter Weir connection, englishvoodoo. And Anonymous Content has a LOT of Music Vid directors to draw on.

Seems to me they are taking it in another direction. One that is more, dare I say, Character based?

TrickofPerspective, I never saw the Lost in Translation connection, but now.... hmme. You could have a point.

Question? How will they handle the 9/11 connection. Dare they leave it in?