TAWOK&C: Director of "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" film defends changes
The Amazing Website of Kavalier & Clay - News: "Rawson Marshall Thurber, the director behind the up-coming screen adaptation of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, defended changes he made in the story in a new interview with The Advocate.
'My real goal was to make a film that felt like the novel did to me, and I think I’ve done that,' he said.
Thurber took significant liberties with the book, eliminating the character of Arthur, making Cleveland bisexual and romantically linked to the main character, Art, and cutting the role of Phlox to that of a minor character. Online, many fans of the book have bashed the changes, and anti-Mysteries MySpace pages are easy to find. But Thurber says he made the changes with Michael Chabon's blessing."
posted by Cephas @ 3:51 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Thanks for your post!
As the moderator of the Offical MOP Film Boycott, I read the interview with RMT in the Advocate and he gave the exact same excuses he's been spouting since the Fall of 2006 (when the Boycott officially began!)
Did RMT read a different version of Michael Chabon's novel or something? Because anyone who's read it knows the story can not survive without Arthur and Phlox as a central character.
Isn't that part of what makes MOP such a unique story? Two guys with the exact same name, falling for each other?
And how dare RMT insinuate that there is ANY "thing" between Art and Cleveland. On p. 204 of the paperback (I don't have it in front of me but I'm almost certain) Art Bechstein says of his friendship with Cleveland, "there was no shadow of sex to mar or deepen it... We were FRIENDS." (caps mine.)
Again, I think RMT is simply making excuses. Why can't he just say, "Look all you MOP fans... Hollywood would NEVER allow me to make a mainstream movie about a guy falling for a GAY guy"?
Instead, he rambles on about four-pointed love rhombuses and makes other b.s. excuses for his trying to capitalize on the Michael Chabon name.
And Chabon himself should be just as ashamed for selling out.
PS--Anyone wanting to read the screenplay for themselves, email: bechstein[at]yahoo[dot]com
Thanks!
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