From Page to Screen Archives - Page 4 of 4

Is Endless Love Possible??? “The Best of Me”, by Nicholas Sparks

In 2011 the author of the hugely popular novel, The Notebook, published his next novel, The Best of Me. Nicholas Sparks is an American novelist, screenwriter, and producer who has published seventeen books. Eight of the novels have been adapted to film.

In quoting the book: “Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She believed in it once too, back when she was eighteen”. High school students, Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole were very much in love, even though they were from opposite sides of the tracks. But high school teen love somehow defies reality in a small North Carolina town. As so often happens, unforeseen events tore the young couple apart, sending them on very divergent paths.

As the novel progresses, it is twenty-five years later and they meet once again, when they return to the small town for a funeral. In one week-end they will discover undeniable truths about what has happened in the last twenty-five years and will be forced to answer the question …………”Can love truly rewrite the past”?

In October 2014, director Michael Hoffman’s movie adaptation of the novel will be released. The cast includes: Liana Liberato as the young Amanda Collier; Michelle Mongahan as Amanda Collier; James Marsden as Dawson Cole; Luke Bracey, young Dawson. As a side story, Paul Walker was cast as the lead role, but passed away and was replaced by James Marsden.

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What is a Traditional family?…”A Home at the End of the World”, by Michael Cunningham

Pulitzer prize-winning, American author Michael Cunningham wrote “A Home at The End of the World”. The book is written with narrating by different characters for each chapter. The story is a very complicated one, with themes of living in a drug using, dysfunctional family where a central character, Bobby, loses everyone who is close to him. Their demise came through excess partying and drug use in the 1960s and 1970’s in suburban Cleveland, Ohio.

Bobby becomes friends with Jonathan, whose family took him in after Bobby’s family all died. They are physically attracted to each other, but through various reasons, they eventually part ways. In 1980s New York, they meet up again when they are in their 20s. By then, Jonathan has a roommate Clare who is eccentric to say the least. The three of them become an unusual family, causing them to question the definition of traditional family and love. A question made even more complicated by their love triangle.

Director, Michael Mayer adapted Cunningham’s novel and screenplay into a movie by the same name. The main three characters are played by: Bobby, Colin Farrell; Jonathan, Dallas Roberts; Clare, Robin Wright.

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Survival….”Under the Dome”, by Stephen King

Stephen King began to write his novel entitled “Under the Dome”, back in 1976. That endeavor lasted about two weeks and only yielded 75 pages before King gave up. Then, while watching the Simpsons Movie in 2007, King was moved to again write on the subject of a community being enclosed in a glassy dome. Thus, in the period of November 22, 2007 to March 14, 2009, Under the Dome was proclaimed.

This is a science fiction/political novel set in and around a small Maine community. The story tells how an invisible barrier literally drops out of the sky, cutting off this small community from the outside world. It has multiple characters and tells how the community inhabitants contend with such a calamity. The local used car salesman, “Big Jim” Rennie, seizes the opportunity to take over the town when the police chief is killed when his pacemaker explodes when he gets too close to the dome. And so begins the struggle for power between the federal government agents and “Big Jim’s” misguided followers acting as police officers.

“Under the Dome” is currently adapted for television on CBS. The Executive Producer is Stephen Spielberg, but is Co-Produced by several others including author Stephen King.

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