The Road

'The Road' is a film based on my favorite book of recent, which shares the same name. Cormac McCarthy is truly one of the greatest living writers and his first book-to-film adaptation was more than adequate I'd say as 'No Country for Old Men' won numerous awards. For those of you who don't know the story, it is as follows: "The Road" is a post-apocalyptic dramatic thriller about a father and his son walking alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.
Those of you who know me understand that I love a good post-apocalyptic film and I was equally excited and afraid when I heard about plans for a film adaptation. Now that its confirmed that it will star Viggo Mortenson as the father, and 'The Proposition' director will helm (not to mention appearances by Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron, and Robert Duvall) I am now confident that this film could very well live up to its potential. The one wild-card here is Kodi Smit-McPhee who will play the son, whom I know next to nothing about. That is a role that could seriously make or break this film, but as long as they don't go completely mad and play up the cute factor, we should be ok.....I hope.
The difficulty will be whether a storyline that unfolds as beautifully, deliberately and confidently as the novel format allows will be effectively translated to the screen. Will hollywood get scared and meddle with MTV editing, special effects, adding increased, but dumbed down dialogue? We shall see, it will certainly be a great challenge for all involved, but this film has so much going for it, consider my expectations through the roof.
Here are some fantastic looking production stills: