Toronto Film Fest showcases literary tried and true

Toronto Film Fest showcases literary tried and true

Call it renewed appreciation for literary classics or merely further evidence of Hollywood shying away from unproven material, but this year’s Toronto Film Festival slate is heavy with literary adaptations, some of which may make a splash during Oscar season.
‘Cloud Atlas’, and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, both based on recent best-sellers, are among the most eagerly anticipated titles set to unspool at the festival, which is considered part of the opening bell for the Hollywood awards season. Classic novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, are also experiencing new interpretations on celluloid.
Among the most eagerly anticipated is Deepa Mehta’s ‘Midnight’s Children’, based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Salman Rushdie about India’s independence from British rule in 1947 and subsequent partition of the country.
Tipped early on to be one of many Toronto entrants to be in contention for the upcoming awards season, the film has instead garnered shaky reviews ahead of its premiere today (Sunday) in front of a festival audience. The film “dawdles and fails to justify its two-and-a-half-hour running time”, said the Hollywood Reporter, while Variety said it “feels like too much to take in all at once”. All told, eleven of the 20 galas, the showcase films of the ten-day event, are based on an existing work such as a play or novel.
“Hollywood likes a proven commodity,” said Pete Hammond, movie writer for website Deadline Hollywood. Hence the recent wave of comic book-based summer blockbusters that bring with them an existing fan base. As summer popcorn movies morph into the more serious fare of autumn, Hollywood appears to be keeping the same script.
Of course, these films aren’t free of challenges, and pictures like ‘Midnight’s Children’ and ‘Cloud Atlas’, an adaptation of the best-selling novel directed by Tom Twyker and ‘Matrix’ co-directors Andy and Lana Wachowski, both come from source material thought difficult to adapt to the big screen. reuters