A Little Life
discussion
This Book deserves to be made into a movie
I am one of those who don't like movies made from books. I can't imagine the beauty of this book could be captured in a film. If it were to happen, I sure hope it would go to a small indie company--maybe they wouldn't destroy it like main stream Hollywood!
When I was reading the book, I kept imagining Jude Law as Jude St.Francis, so yes for Jude Law to play Jude St.Francis all the way! Haha but really, I do hope it stays true to the book if it is turned into a movie, and not drastically altered and over-publicised like many Hollywood movies.
I agree with Anita. Although the idea of a movie appeals to me on the surface, I'm not sure I would actually watch it! I loved this book so much and I want it to remain forever preserved in my mind just as it was when I read it.
Mary wrote: "What a beautiful book! This book really deserves its movie version.My dream cast would be:
Jude St. Francis: Jude law
Willem: Tom Hardy
Malcom: Will Smith
JB: Johnny Depp"
Isn't JB black though?
I don't think it works as a movie.
I don't think this would work as a movie. If it was I don't think I'd see it.I pictured Jude as Dane DeHaan, Willem as Chris Pine, JB as Tahj Mowry and Harold as Rhys Ifans.
It probably will be at some point given all the attention it's getting.
Hanya mentioned in one of her Instagram posts recently that she would like either Christian Bale or Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play Jude in either stage or film adaptation.Personally I think JGR is a more inspired choice. He can look vulnerable yet intelligent, and also quite racially ambiguous at times. Christian Bale might be a little old for the role. You can always make an actor look older but not younger.
I also much prefer it to be adapted into a stage play then a movie.
i like the gordon-levitt idea, too, for the same reason.
Greetings. The fact that you gave this book movie status, makes me want to read it more. I have movie dreams for my book Alice Had a Palace, and believe it should be made into a movie. Dreaming too big? Why not, dreams are free. Have an amazing writer day, and may one of your books turn into a movie. Sincerely, Brenda Rae Schoolcraft
Ezra Miller as Jude - ethnically and sexually ambiguous.
ooh, he would be a good choice.
All the excitement about this book, A Little Life. I am compelled to read it soon. Brenda Rae Schoolcraft
Ezra Miller as Jude - that's brilliant. Perfect. I do hope this gets to film or stage.
yes yes yes!!!! Joseph Gordon-Levitt for sure, agree 100%.
Just as far as looks go, I definitely saw Jude as looking more like Ezra Miller, and Willem as Chris Pine. JB might be Tahj Mowry, not Johnny Depp. Who would be Malcol?. Will Smith seems too old.
How about Anthony Mackie playing Malcolm?!
I can see this in tortuous, shadowy black-and-white with a no name cast. As far as a director, we no longer have Hitchcock (who could no doubt deliver to us a Psycho-ish freak show) but we do have one director who seems to be able to do ANYTHING: Ang Lee. But really, has any season of "American Horror" been this horrible? I can't imagine this book as a Technicolor dream with an A-list cast.
Great review. Gives me a new dimension on this story. I have yet to read it.
I think Joseph Gorden-Levitt would make a fantastic Jude. I also think Johnny Depp would do well in this role because of his acting ability and beauty, but he may be too old. Chris Pine would be a perfect Willem. If Trevor Noahn can act, he would be a great Malcom. I am having trouble picturing a black actor for JB. Anyone have any suggestions?
No way this amazing book could be adapted into a great movie, but a girl and dream. My dream cast:Jude: Ezra Miller
Willem: Billy Magnusson
J.B: Jason Derulo
Malcom: Michael B Jordan
(Taking age of actors into consideration)
Seeing this is neither here nor there, and just speculation, I will say that Alice Had a Palace, deserves to be made into a movie. I can just see myself getting ready to go to the premiere.
I finished the book yesterday and loved it. I also really like Mary's casting @ m1, particularly Jude Law and Johnny Depp.
This book deserves to be left alone and NOT be made into a movie. There is nothing that Hollywood could do to this story except ruin it.
Janice wrote: "This book deserves to be left alone and NOT be made into a movie. There is nothing that Hollywood could do to this story except ruin it."Agree totally.
I thought Jake Gyllenhal might make a good Jude - just cos he has the acting chops to pull the role off.
Eddie Redmayne could be stunning as Willem, I think, although he'd also be lovely as Jude--though he lacks the aspect of racial ambiguity, I realize, which I do think is important. He's just so good at evoking a certain type of beautiful fragility .
This book really deserves to be spared of a cheesy and oversimplified movie version. It does.
Patricia wrote: "Janice wrote: "This book deserves to be left alone and NOT be made into a movie. There is nothing that Hollywood could do to this story except ruin it."Agree totally."
Janice, Patricia, agreed. This is not filmable by Hollywood for sure. The ending would never in a million years be put on screen, and without Jude realizing the truth about his world, there isn't a story. Besides, if it were adapted faithfully, it would be horrific to watch.
I like the characters formulated in my head as I read this book. It should never be made into a film.
Shelley wrote: "I like the characters formulated in my head as I read this book. It should never be made into a film."Shelly, absolutely not filmable. I agree.
Liz wrote: "I agree with Anita. Although the idea of a movie appeals to me on the surface, I'm not sure I would actually watch it! I loved this book so much and I want it to remain forever preserved in my mind..."Liz, agreed. Loved it as it is, the best work of the 21st century so far, in any form.
The only white character was Willem,....
This book moved me in a way that none others have in a very long time. Let it live as a book and leave it at that. No film please!
I adore A Little Life like nothing else, but the only appeal a movie adaption brings is that more people will be tempted to read the book. For a novel which relies heavily on internal dialogue and emotions, especially when it comes to Jude and Harold's POV, I don't think any form of adaption would do the text justice. That being said, as a lover of theatre I'd like to see how it was pitched as a play (with Leslie Odom Jr. as Malcolm). But, like films, a play can only be so long and explore so much.
I think the only medium I'd be tempted to watch would be a HBO TV show; lengthly episodes means it can delve deeper into narratives and characters thus cutting less text from the novel, and, as it did with Game of Thrones, giving the lead characters to unknown actors would be even better!
My ideas: Jude: Wentworth Miller (but with hair), Oscar Isaac or Jesse Williams
Willem: Josh Holloway, Alexander Skarsgard
JB: Taye Diggs, Steve Harris
Malcolm: Boris Kodjoe, Michael B. Jordan
Andy: Paul Adelstein
Howard: Bryan Cranston
Julia: Blythe Danner
Caleb: Cillian Murphy
Brother Luke: James Remar, Cary Elwes, Chris Cooper
Eddie Redmayne, yes I agree. Please neither Joseph Gordon Levitt or Ezra Miller! The actor would need to have a deeply intelligent face as well as a beautiful one. Better still, leave it in book form so we can all imagine our own Judes.
Yes! Let all of us have our own Jude's ....
I'd rather read the book again and again than go see a movie about it. Months have passed since I last finished it, and I still can't concentrate on anything new. I may have read the best book of my life.
I loved the book but just can envision a screenplay doing the story any justice.
Here's what I wrote on my blog about the possibility of a TV adaptation of A Little Life:One recent article intimated that A Little Life could be made into a TV series. Since Yanagihara herself, having made multiple, contradictory claims, cannot decide what the story is actually about, we will have to wait and see what the show makers decide it is about.
Judging by the relevant tags on tumblr, the main attraction to the book’s fans seems to be the sentimental guff about friendship in the adulthood sections of the book (as if a few quotable lines could justify the rest of it!).
TV shows are written by committee, even if Yanagihara is involved, she won’t be given a free reign like she had with the book, there is too much money at stake with a TV show. TV adaptations are also good at taking the best bits from the original source, and improving on them, and at smoothing away the rough edges, to make something better than the original (True Blood springs most readily to mind). On the other hand, it would be very easy to do very badly, too sentimental, too repetitive, taking too much dialogue and too many plot points from the source.
My best guess is that it will concentrate on the adulthood sections of the book – the art galleries, the architecture, the ‘lifestyle porn’, Willem’s Hollywood career, Jude’s legal career – and the self harm and flash-backs of child rape will be discretely shown (you can’t show four solid hours of child rape and self mutilation, no mainstream audience would watch it and no TV channel would pay for it), and if they show Jude and Willem having sex at all, that will be done discretely too, otherwise risk turning into a side show. It will be a standard, conventional, glossy story about the adult success of four college friends, but one of them will have a dark secret from his past.
But who knows? Maybe it will tackle the abuse head-on; a scene of Jude, in the shower with Willem, with a thousand-yard stare, cutting back to nine-year-old Jude in the shower with Brother Luke, or close-ups of adult self-harming intercut with scenes of child rape, just to hammer the point home.
But to do full justice to A Little Life, in all its bloated, lurid, sadistic glory, would require a full-on, old school, Cronenberg body-horror treatment. Let’s show those warty furrows and foetal mouths; let’s have an animatronic hyena (animatronic, not CGI, it needs to be visceral, like the talking bug/anus/typewriter things in Naked Lunch) follow Jude around all day like one of Philip Pullman’s daemons, telling Jude he’s a worthless, dirty, whore. Let’s see Jude cut himself and mud and centipedes ooze and wriggle out; let’s see sewerage and slaughterhouse effluent seep up through the “silvery, stripey marble … from a small quarry outside Izmir” and the “cypress sourced from Gifu”; let’s see Harold, or Willem or Caleb (or all three, since it’s all about extremes and bad taste) split his skin to reveal Brother Luke underneath; let’s have the actor playing Jude starve himself down like Christian Bale did for The Machinist; let’s see Jude, grinding away like a porn star, while the scars on his back pulse like some alien parasite.
You want gratuitous brutality? Here’s your gratuitous brutality, the very existence of the story itself.
https://iamreadingthereforeiam.wordpr...
So the book is officially optioned for Mini Series *yay* http://www.vulture.com/2016/08/scott-...What I think about the casting:
Jude: need someone who is ethnically ambiguous. Can show to be strong in front of court but can also be vulnerable. I agree with JGL, Ezra Miller or Rami Malek
JB: a joker and an artist. Black as well. How about Donald Glover or Michael B. Jordan
Malcolm: Part white part black. How about Jesse Williams
Willem: Scandinavian looking. I think Alexander Skarsgard will be perfect.
But of course, it's just a dream cast.
I can't help thinking that A Little Life will turn out to be some kind of bizarre literary hoax. Just look at Yanagihara's choice of cover image, which looks like a man grimacing in pain, but is actually orgasming. Pain is pleasure and pleasure is pain; Yanagihara is playing a big sadomasochistic joke on all her readers.On the other hand, maybe she believes this herself. She told the Baileys Prize how much she enjoyed writing all the characters (I take her emphasis on 'all' here to mean the abusive characters), and the National Book Award how 'joyous' it was to inhabit darkness.
This is ironic given that her editor attacked Daniel Mendelsohn for describing A Little Life as "little more than a machine designed to produce negative emotions for the reader to wallow in," that seems to be exactly her intention.
Personally, I would love to see JEREMY IRVINE as Willem. He's handsome and charming but can also play a deeply Kind and caring character
Is it exciting to imagining which actor will play Jude? Which actor you will get to see cutting and burning and starving himself, which actor you will get to see raped and beaten and thrown down the stairs, which actor you will get to see covered in scars and open wounds and deteriorating until parts of his body have to be amputated?
I can only picture this being a tv mini series on HBO or something.Jude: Jacob Tremblay - Dane Dehaan - Leo DiCaprio
Willem: Sebastian Stan - Viggo Mortensen
JB: Donald Glover
Malcolm: Jesse Williams
Harold: Martin Sheen
Julia: Meryl Streep
Brother Luke: Joaquin Phoenix
Dr. Traylor: Kevin Spacey
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as JudeJake McDorman as Willem
Edi Gathegi as JB
Catero Colbert as Malcolm
( http://statici.behindthevoiceactors.c... )
Sam Page as Andy
Colin Firth as Harold
Joaquin Phoenix as Brother Luke
Charlie Hunnam as Caleb
Julianne Moore as Julia
Ed Harris as Dr. Traylor
Melanie wrote: "My ideas: Jude: Wentworth Miller (but with hair), Oscar Isaac or Jesse Williams
Willem: Josh Holloway, Alexander Skarsgard
JB: Taye Diggs, Steve Harris
Malcolm: Boris Kodjoe, Michael B. Jordan
A..."
so good!!
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My dream cast would be:
Jude St. Francis: Jude law
Willem: Tom Hardy
Malcom: Will Smith
JB: Johnny Depp