Forums: On The Road

Kerouac here, rolling over in my grave....
Are you KIDDING ME?? Ok, "On the Road" is my favorite novel. Granted, it's sloppy and immature, but the damn thing has PASSION. I love this book like I love the films that have inspired me. It's one of those works that touched something primal within me... something that set me on my life's path.. helped me discover my lfe's passions.

But this... this is a bad idea. You cannot POSSIBLY capture the energy of that book. I agree with the lnog thought notion that the book is unfilmable. Too much will be lost in the translation to do the novel justice. And the casting... oh, the casting. I'm one helluva Brad Pitt fan (in a purely hetro-sexual way... eat me Doofy, I know what you're thinking), but he is WRONG WRONG WRONG for Dean Moriarty/Neal Cassidy. The only person I could even FATHOM playing Dean is Thomas Jane. Jane played Neal Cassidy is an AMAZING indie flick called The Last Time I Committed Suicide. That film was based on some letters that Cassidy had sent to Kerouac, and Jane captured Cassidy's manic lifestyle PERFECTLY. But Pitt... nope, not gonna work.

Believe me, I would LOVE to see this done, IF I could imagine it could be done right. But I can't... which is too bad.

My only hope is that with the amount of times I've heard that this project is "moving forward" over the years, this is another one of those times were the forward movement is stopped when they realize it's not gonna work.

~ Kerouac

I have to once again agree with you MR KEROUAC. On THe Road is a phenominal book but I don't believe anybody could adapt it to the big screen. If this actully happens I will be suprised if it a decent lick.

Kerouac you need to give me your new work number you dick. Call me!!!!

It's about the birth of the "Beat Generation", which was a group of American authors and poets... Basically, the story of the book is about Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac) and his journeys back and forth across the US. He hitchikes, goes by car, etc. It's about the relationship between Sal and Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassidy), and the friendship they had. It's a frantically paced book with an AMAZING look at the heart of America through the eyes of a 1950s beatnik.

Great writing, great story, and an amazingly quick read.

I highly recommend picking it up!

~ Kerouac

Almost everything Kerouac wrote was autobiographical, but due to liability issues, his editors and publishers made him change the names of his characters. So, if you follow the history of the Beat Generation at all (which I do), it helps to know which characters were which. So, Kerouac called himself "Sal Paradise", and he called Neal Cassidy "Dean Moriarty".

Almost all of his books are this way, except he uses different names for people in each of them. One of the things he wanted to do before he died was collect all of his works, and give his characters consistent names throughout, then republish them. Unfortunately, that never happened...

~ Kerouac

The only way I touch this movie is if Gilliam is filming it. Otherwise there's no way it come sout right. This is one of THE calssics of modern american lit....When will hollywood learn

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