The Real Thing

Last week Salon asked a lot of writers, musicians, and filmmakers to name their favorite books, music, and movies of 2007. It's a fun and often surprising list. Near the end comes David Cronenberg. He mentions no movie or music, but one book rushes to his mind:

I read a Henry James novel published in 1897 called What Maisie Knew, about a child of divorce who bounces back and forth between her soon-remarried parents like a tennis ball. The relationship of James' language to the psychology of his characters and then to their actions is dense and fascinating and pleasurable. It is also a very emotionally charged story, something you almost don't notice until it flattens you.

So when Cronenberg's not busy filming vicious hand-to-hand skirmishes in steam rooms, he's in an easy chair reading Henry James. I love the guy! Can we look forward to his adaptation of Maisie? Maybe with Dakota Fanning in the title role (though Abigail Breslin would be more affordable), and, say, Samantha Morton as her unsightly protector, Mrs. Wix? Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts will be perfect as her irreconcilably divided parents. When does shooting start? A movie-lover can dream, can't he?

Comments

[Campaspe]

I read What Maisie Knew about two years ago and found it splendid. The most horrifying violence in Cronenberg is always psychological and Maisie has that in spades. How do we get him to take this on?

Fanning will be a little old for the part, though...