Saturday, May 23, 2009

Eat, Pray, Love the movie

So, yeah, they're turning the book into a movie starring Julia Roberts. Both parts of that sentence seem equally strange to me. Although I like Julia Roberts (especially in America's Sweethearts, call me a dork), I don't see her as Elizabeth Gilbert in the slightest. They just seem to have completely different vibes. (Although when I saw Gilbert at a reading, she said that she felt like she had no involvement in the movie whatsoever and felt like she had to let the work go and let it become the filmmaker's work...if I am remembering that correctly.) Buzz Sugar however recently reported that Richard Jenkins was recently cast as Richard from Texas, which seems absolutely appropriate.

But I also just don't see Eat, Pray, Love as a movie, as much as I love it. Because the thing is, nothing really happens. Yes, she travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia, but so much of the book happens in her head. It's about how she feels and what she's working out internally. And for God's sake, she spends most of her time in India in meditation - and frankly, I don't see more than five minutes of that on film being compelling.

Interestingly, a man is writing and directing the film, due out in 2011. It's Ryan Murphy, who I'd never heard of before but obviously should have, as he's the creator of Nip/Tuck, Glee, and the writer/director of Running with Scissors. (Funny enough, I haven't seen any of these, though I've heard good things about all.) I read a story recently that said he's still working on the EPL screenplay, though I can't seem to find it again on the Interwebs. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

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