We Should Read "The Paperboy"
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 10:18AM Herewith a few notes on the newly released poster for The Paperboy which looks good enough to... read. The movie is about a reporter (Matthew McConaughey) and his troubled brother (Zac Efron) investigating a death row inmate (John Cusack) who is involved in a steamy correspondence with a femme fatale (Nicole Kidman).
Is Zac Efron sending me a personal message by working with La Pfeiffer & Nic' back to back?
[plugs ears] lalalalalalalala ican'thearyou
I was once a paperboy. It's true. For years! Paperboys have gone the way of the milk man but when I was a kid this was a common job for suburban boys and girls to have. Then you'd do your collecting and spend all your hard-earned quarters at the arcade.
Nicole Kidman looks trashy delishusssss. Love the lusty smirk, like she's going to eat Zac right up -- not for his pleasure (!) but just to wield her own sexual power. Billing is always an interesting matter. If you can't be first, be last. Or rather "AND..." last. So Matthew & Nic' win.
Speaking of billing... I find it kind of interesting that the poster preferences the novelist and screenwriter above the Oscar nominated Lee Daniels (Precious) like it's a subliminal reminder of how great Precious was. Implied titles The Paperboy: Based on the Novel "The Paperboy" by Pete Dexter.
I think the color scheme is really helping. It's like the movie is summertime hot but someone left the paperback on the beach and it got all washed out. The retro craze for teaser posters is really on, isn't it? Just like the retro craze is really on onscreen (at least three of the Best Picture hopefuls). I suppose ANYTHING is better than dread contemporary poster aesthetics: big floating movie star heads or those imagination-prison horizontal stripes. This poster manages to include all the stars (if that's McConaughey out of focus but I can never recognize him with his shirt on) without resorting to the stripes at all. Well, except for that last insert of John Cusack's threatening eyeliner. But even that plays like a fun "to be continued" comic book panel.
If the movie is as good as this poster, I shall write it steamy letters from my apartment prison.
I think we should read the novel while we wait for this because you know Lee Daniels isn't a copy & paste kind of director but someone who likes to play with visuals. Who is with me? If so, say so... we need lots of blog projects to do it up real big like for 2012 before the apocalypse.
Reader Comments (21)
Dear Mr. R.,
I am generally in for book discussion, in fact, I'm in a group that discusses one book a month at least.
But I couldn't find The Paperboy to buy.
Where are you going to get yours?
Marcelo.
Ooh, I'm interested in reading it. This looks promising. I am an avid lover of Precious, so I hope this is really good too. And of course, Nicole Kidman is in it. :)
And I think the cast is really interesting.
Digging the poster. Digging Mr. Efron i his undies even more. It's a cruel world.
Marcelo, I just got the used version of this book at gohastings for $3. Pretty interesting; thsi could turn out to be kinda trashy entertaining movie if it's done right. And I just read that Pedro is the exec producer on this? Fingers crossed for this to be good.
Thanks, Drew.
I'll try to get a copy.
Marcelo.
I read The Paperboy this last summer when I learnt Nikki was going to be in it. Charlotthe Bless is an amazing character. I so happy she will bring us the old Suzanne Stone-Maretto back.
I'm wondering what the tone of this film will be. I'm hoping for something a little sleazy/campy so we can see Nicole slutting it up. I'm imagining something in the vein of Wild Things but much better. She needs to have fun in a movie again (Just Go With It does not count as either fun or an actual movie in my opinion). She does grief exquisitely but it can be taxing on the viewer as well as the artist. I want her to be a hot-ass-mess to the tenth degree!
I wonder what time of year this will be released. If it's a film festival entry (say TIFF), the sight of Zac and Nicole together would be too much for much.
Great poster! The film's synopsis either needs a little work or they've changed things a little.
In the book Charlotte is what I would consider slutty from what comes out of her mouth but at the same time, she is very classy in the "I do not want to have bra stripes mark on me" kinda way. People keep calling it an erotic thriller, the book is nothing of the sort. It is a thriller. Yes, there is a lot of sex (off the page and certainly not between Charlotte and Jack) but the book is about journalism, intergrity, growing up, brotherhood, murderous insanity, love, lust, homophobia, infidelity, family, expectations.
The released synopsis of the film is myopic. I hope they sell it right because audiences can be fickle, if you tell them something is in a movie and it isn't, they forget what they have seen and claim it is a terrible film.
What a great poster! I love the colours. And I consider it high praise when I say it would be a great book cover because generally I hate movie-tie-in covers- I won't buy anything with one on principle (though I nearly made an exception for an edition of Homer's Odyssey with the cast of O Brother Where Art Thou on the cover).
oh, i just talked about this yesterday on my blog as well:
http://thefilmsthething.blogspot.com/
also, i'm in for the book to screen book club: paperboy edition. (doesn't it feel like it should have a tag line like-he delivers.)
if this is something that becomes a regular thing, i suggest we read cloud atlas next...
That poster is amazing. I can't find a release date for the film, but I'm hoping it comes out in spring or summer. We need more good films released earlier in the year!
See, I love the idea on theory but I would prefer us to do it for Anna Karenina which I plan to read anyway.
Oh no Nathaniel, the days of the paperboy are alive and thriving unfortunately. I was one for a year, I only stopped a few months ago.
All I heard was "Nicole Kidman".
I thought that was Ann-Margret in the car at first. Is that good for Ann-Margret or bad for Nicole Kidman
Nicougar Kidman looks positively ferosh there.
Lee Daniels was such a hilarious interviewee during Oscar season 2010, so I hope this puts him back in the mix. I love his eclectic casting. He gets a free pass for life for that awesome performance he pulled out of Mariah Carey (and Gary Ross credited Precious when he cast Kravitz as Cinna, so I love Lee Daniels even more now).
@Natt, is it really Cusack's eyeliner or part of his wet bangs in his forehead? I just can't tell.
I read the book and really liked it, but I was a bit disappointed. The film synopsis states that Jack and Charlotte have an affair but this is not the case in the book. I love that Zac Efron is being paired with older women - keeps the fantasy going. I heard that this movie is being released on 11/23/12. I don not know if this is true -I hope it is released sooner than that.