2011 already looks like a big year for literary movies. The much anticipated movies The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson (starring Johnny Depp) and On the Road by Jack Kerouac (starring a host of famous faces including Kristen Stewart, Steve Buscemi, Amy Adams, Viggo Mortensen, etc.) are finally set to release in 2011.
But there’s one movie release I can’t wait for. I’m obsessed with 20th-21st century literary great Philip Roth, so it’s only natural I’m waiting for American Pastoral to come out on the big screen. This is the book that taught me how to write. And this is the book which has incredibly complex and compelling characters such as the Swede and his sociopath daughter Merry. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1998.
The movie has been slated to release for a while now. Even at press time, I cannot find the exact details or release date. But what I do know is that Evan Rachel Wood will play Merry, an absolute crazy, which Woods has already proved she can play in Thirteen and on the HBO series True Blood. The pick for the Swede is Paul Bettany, who played uber pale Silas in The Da Vinci Code. He is a perfect pick for the Swede because the Swede is actually Jewish, but he looks Scandinavian, hence his nickname “the Swede.”
The Swede’s troubled wife and former Miss Jersey is to be played by the beautiful Jennifer Connelly of House of Sand and Fog and A Beautiful Mind fame. She is gorgeous enough to play the Swede’s wife and she certainly knows how to play a woman in emotional turmoil.
So as you can see, I’m psyched about American Pastoral. I will keep our literary travelers up to date on when the movie will be released to the big screen. And I’ll definitely be the first in line.
~ Jennifer, Network Editorial Director