Studio:
Columbia Pictures.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Development Hell.
Who's In It:
Matt Damon (John Grady Cole); Henry Thomas; Lucas Black; Penelope Cruz (unconfirmed).
Who's Making It:
Billy Bob Thornton (Director); Ted Tally (Screenwriter); Mike Nichols (Producer); based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.
Premise: A young Texan with no real prospects crosses the borderinto Mexico with some friends only to find a job, romance, murder and jail time.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: With the book winning both the National Book Award for Fiction and the National Critics Circle Book Award in 1992, and this film being Thornton's second time in the director's chair for a full-length film (his first being the acclaimed Sling Blade), this is a project to keep an eye on.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page draft submitted by 'Widgett'.]
April 10, 1998... Leonardo DiCaprio may be eyeing this project, which is putting the studio in a bit of a quandry over what to do with something that was budgeted "modestly." DiCaprio's reps are reportedly asking $20 million for his next role, and the studio might just re-budget according to get Leo on board. [Scoop originally appeared in Variety, reported by 'Widgett'.]
We were first told about this project from 'Porpoise' in late February. From his account of the original material, Thorton's picture has tremendous possibilities. We're very thankful to 'Porpoise' for also including his own thoughts on the source material...
"If this film is pulled off correctly, we're talking Titanic set in the Old West - as bizzare as that sounds I'm referring to the central love story in the book and what effect it will have on audiences. All that's known so far is that Billy Bob Thornton is attatched to direct, Ted Tally (Silence of the Lambs) has written the first draft... And Thornton has been pursuing relentlessly either Matt Damon, Tobey Maguire, or Leonardo DiCaprio (my pick for the role - not because of Titanic but because I can't think of a single actor who looks young enough, is so effortlessly charming, and can also pull off the more tortured aspects of the character's destiny - and think of him in The Quick and The Dead - he has the western thang down) for the lead role.
"To relate the plot: in the late 40s in Texas, a young man named John Grady Cole is living on his family's ranch when his grandfather passes away - his mother and father, seperated, decide to sell the ranch. All Cole knows and wants to do with his life is be a rancher, so he heads for Mexico with his best friend Rawlins... Teenage runaways headed for a primeval and untamed territory where violence and spectral beauty rule. On the way they meet Blevins, a violent runaway 13 year old whose roughness cannot be contained. Cole and Rawlins find work on a Spanish Rancher's farm taming horses - and Cole is drawn to the rancher's daughter intensely; as she to him.
"What happens, however, is so resolutely haunting and soul shattering it cannot be explained in mere terms of plot. Needless to say, John Grady Cole pays an eternal price for his naivete and honor. As written, it sounds slightly cheesy, but think of it this way: Cormac McCarthy, the book's author, has been compared to James Joyce and is treated rather seriously by literary scholars, and also wrote Blood Meridian - a novel set in the Old West which makes Apocalypse Now look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. You know how Sergio Leone sets up his gunfights so that's it not the shooting matters but the grimacing closeups and the relationships between the duellists that matters? That's the kind of violence McCarthy writes - operatic but also so bizzarely intimate.
"This is one of those books that wannabe filmmakers read and think 'My god, if only I could make this.' The book is epic, intimate, ambitious, violent, and heartbreaking. Simply put, it has the potential to be the greatest Western ever. Like all the best coming of age stories - it's not just about a singular individual coming of age but the entire world. And it is one of the greatest deconstructions of the myth of the cowboy ever written, while at the same time being an homage to such myths.
"I know it's really stupid to relate - 'hey, one time I said'... But in 1993 a little book won the Booker Prize in England and I told all my friends to get it, read it, and awe over the fact of what an amazing film it would make but that it remained unfilmable - The English Patient."
[Scoop delivered by the mercurial 'Porpoise'.]
April 16, 1998... Matt Damon beats out Leonardo DiCaprio to nab the lead in the film. Damon will receive a reported $5 million for his acting work, and is apparently already a fan of the novel. Our anonymous scooper told us the evening before the story went public that Damon got the part because DiCaprio couldn't reach an agreement on a dollar figure. [Sent in by 'manicman', 'lcuga', Taj Abdur- Raheem, 'Lech', and anonymously.]
September 24, 1998... Henry Thomas has signed to star opposite Matt Damon in this one. Tobey Maguire had been up for the role, but no deal was struck. Shooting will begin next March. [Originally appeared in Daily Variety]
September 29, 1998... Some rumors concerning the casting of this project: Spanish actress Penelope Cruz (appearing in forthcoming "The Hi-Lo Country"), has been contacted to play the leading female role. She will probably be the girl who falls for Matt Damon. [Scoop sent in Anonymously]
November 16, 1998... We were scooped some more details on this production still in the development stage. "Matt Damon was at the London Film Festival last night for a screening of Rounders and took some questions afterwards. Someone asked him about All the Pretty Horses and he said that filming should begin next March around Tuscon, and that Lucas Black from Sling Blade would also be starring." [Scoop branded by 'KD'.]
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