In case you thought I was going to refer to people only by the things they’ve done in the past in this post, you’re wrong. That’s only for the headline.
However, a British man from Dorset who has directed 4 films and been nominated for Oscars for 3 of them and who is 6′ 2’’ has decided that, for his next project, he’d like to adapt a novel written by literary wunderkind Jonathan Safran Foer.
That man is Stephen Daldry. That novel is “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”
For those of you who check out a bookstore every once in a while, you’ll remember the novel as the one whose cover had a giant red hand on it. You know the one.
I sadly haven’t read it, although Foer’s “Everything is Illuminated” is fantastic, but according to ComingSoon.net, according to the book’s publisher, the book focuses on a young boy on a mission to find a lock that matches his erstwhile father’s key. The book also explores the sentiments of 9/11 – as the boy’s father died in the World Trade Center attack.
It sounds to me like it explores a lot of themes seen in Foer’s last work – particularly the mission, the relationship one has with one’s family (especially father/son relationships), and the blend of magical realism that can be found in everyday life.
Daldry was most recently lauded for 2008’s The Reader, but also got nominations for The Hours and Billy Elliot. Any project he takes on will raise this question, but it seems especially pressing considering the literary popularity of Foer: Will this combination be the one that finally nets Daldry a win instead of just a nomination?
What do you think?