J.J. Abrams Adapting Great World

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=61578

J.J. Abrams will produce an adaptation of Colum McCann's National Book Award-winning novel "Let the Great World Spin," says The Hollywood Reporter. McCann will write the script.

Abrams would produce at Paramount, where Bad Robot resides. The Gotham Group is also producing. Random House describes the book as follows:

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

"Let the Great World Spin" is the critically acclaimed author's most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann's powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the "artistic crime of the century." A sweeping and radical social novel, "Let the Great World Spin" captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence.

I really hope JJ directs this, it will be very interesting to see him tackle this kind of material.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I usually don't care for movies like that so it's a meh from me.

 

[Octoberist]

has anyone seen Man on Wire, which is a doc based on the actual tightrope artist?

 

[Octoberist]

anyway, for those who saw Man on Wire:

I do think Phillippe Petit is a very charming man, I could NOT believe what a *****e [BLACKOUT]he was to his (Spoiler) girlfriend when he slept with that groupie.[/BLACKOUT] The same girlfriend who supported him throughout his stunt, who traveled from France to NYC on multiple occasions.

Serious, people watch that doc. You'll feel sorry for his friends.

​

 

[Bunker]

Pretty much everyone in the documentary annoyed the **** out of me. The story was quite amazing, though.

 

[Octoberist]

but the friends were very supportive of Phillipe and the underlining part of the movie in the end was that Phillipe was very fond of his newfound fame, leaving his GF and friends behind like that.

 

[GhostPoet]

This will be the first JJ Abrams work I don't like i'm afraid... :/

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

The current projects on Abrams' slate:

• Star Trek sequel
• Mission: Impossible IV
• Morning Glory
• The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist
• A “mystery project” with screenwriters Simon Kinberg & Aline Brosh McKenna
• Undercovers pilot for NBC
• A “medical comedy” for Fox
• 500 Rads - that "Cloverfield-type zombie movie" he's producing
• Micronauts
• Let the Great World Spin

And yet the man has to eat!

 

[Octoberist]

I'm thinking he'll do a smaller film before tackling Star Trek.