Summit Eying ‘Perks of Being A Wallflower’

Now that she’s finished her rather rigorous studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Emma Watson will try her hand at being a more regular troubled adolescent in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, based off the popular (and often banned) novel by Stephen Chbosky.

The Harry Potter actress has been attached to the project since last year and now Summit Entertainment looks to pick up the teen life tale, which already has actor John Malkovich onboard as an independent producer.

Vulture broke the story about Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is told from the perspective of a troubled teenager who identifies himself as Charlie – a role that Percy Jackson & the Olympians star Logan Lerman will tackle. Charlie recounts his experiences as a high school freshman living in Pittsburgh circa 1991 through a series of diary-like letters to an anonymous figure (i.e. the reader) – so yes, for those who are wondering, Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel in the vein of Twilight. Moving on…

Watson is set to play Samantha (Sam), a senior who, along with her step-brother Parick, befriends the intelligent but socially awkward Charlie. Perks of Being a Wallflower tackles many a controversial (and messy) issue including teenage sex, drug use, abortion, molestation, struggles with homosexuality, and the difficulties of high school life in general. Chbosky’s novel pays homages to J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and could be considered an updated version of that classic coming of age tale.

Chbosky himself has a background in screenwriting and was responsible for scripting the cinematic adaptation of the acclaimed Broadway rock musical Rent. He is set to both write and direct the Perks of Being a Wallflower adaptation as well.

The main cast of 'Rent'.

While Watson will be playing another adolescent in Perks of Being a Wallflower, her character will be far removed from that of the brainy, brave, and beautiful Hermione in the Harry Potter franchise. Watson will get to show off her acting chops with a part that requires her to be far less self-assured, capable, and overall more confused about her direction in life – in other words, just your average young person.

Perks of Being a Wallflower features a whole lot of teen angst and more drama than (by and large) the majority of individuals endure during their high school years. It stands to be seen if Chbosky will deliver a harrowing account of one male youth’s rite of passage into adulthood, or an adaptation that comes off as too melodramatic and soapy for most moviegoers’ tastes.

Assuming Summit Entertainment does pick up the project, filming on The Perks of Being a Wallflower could begin this June.

Stay tuned for additional information and follow us on Twitter @screenrant and @feynmanguy for more movie and TV news.

Source: Vulture

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James Franco Eying ‘As I Lay Dying’ & ‘Blood Meridian’ Adaptations?

Not satisfied with co-hosting the 2011 Oscars and starring in one of our favorite movies of 2010 (the highest honor a film can receive, of course), James Franco is reportedly interested in bringing not one but two American literary masterpieces to the big screen: William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.

Early word from Showbiz 411 is that Franco could feasibly begin shooting As I Lay Dying as early as this upcoming spring and then would get the cameras rolling on Blood Meridian sometime in 2012.

Realizing Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying as a film is an intimidating prospect for Franco – or any director, really. The plot of the novel is structured in a stream of consciousness style and features no less than fifteen different narrators, all telling the tale of the Bundren family’s journey to bury their beloved mother in the town of her preference. Those multiple points of view and inner monologues are highly crucial to the structure of the story and the manner in which it unfolds.

Franco and his manager are reportedly in talks with the Faulkner estate for the rights to As I Lay Dying and have already contacted Fox Searchlight about financing the project. Whether or not Showbiz 411‘s claim that Franco himself says “this is the [project] he’s most attached to” is true, there’s little reason to doubt that what is considered one of the greatest novels written in the 20th century won’t eventually become a (hopefully) worthwhile motion picture as well.

The Playlist contacted No Country For Old Men producer Scott Rudin, who Franco has reportedly enlisted to help bring another violent McCarthy western (Blood Meridian) to theaters. Rudin heavily downplayed the story from Showbiz 411, but refrained from flat out denying the report – which could mean that it’s essentially a fabrication or largely exaggerates the progress that either he and/or Franco has made in terms of making the project a reality.

Fully titled Blood Meridian (or The Evening Redness in the West), McCarthy’s novel is set around the mid-19th century and revolves around “the kid”, a nameless young man speculated to be the famed U.S. soldier Samuel Chamberlain, whose time spent with the Glanton gang – an infamous pack of Native American killers and scalp collectors – makes up the bulk of the narrative.

Three of McCarthy’s novels – All the Pretty Horses, No Country For Old Men, and his Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Road – have already made the transition to film. A handful of acclaimed auteurs (including Ridley Scott and John Hillcoat, who directed the Road adaptation) have expressed interest in Blood Meridian before, but Franco may end up being the surprise candidate to secure the job. With the Coen Brothers’ True Grit having arguably resuscitated interest in the western genre, Blood Meridian‘s prospects of being made look all the better – even if the Franco story turns out to be a false trail (pun intended).

Either As I Lay Dying or Blood Meridian would mark Franco’s first time helming a major studio production, but not the actor’s directorial debut in general. The former Spider-Man franchise star recently finished directing an indie film about the poet Hart Crane, titled The Broken Tower, and was the main artistic force behind a handful of small shorts, as well as the Saturday Night Live making-of documentary, Saturday Night. So he may be up to the challenge after all.

Do you like the idea of Franco adapting either As I Lay Dying or Blood Meridian?

Source: Showbiz 411, The Playlist

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