Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian | John Hillcoat

[Cremildo]

New Regency is adapting Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, widely considered one of the greatest works of American literature, as a feature film. John Hillcoat set to direct.

The film will be produced by New Regency, Black Bear Pictures’ Keith Redmon, and Hillcoat. McCarthy and his son, John Francis McCarthy, will serve as executive producers.

Published in 1985, the novel is an epic tale of the violence and depravity that attended America’s westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a 14-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving. [+]

[Foggy]

Either incoming masterpiece or misfire on the horizon here.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Either incoming masterpiece or misfire on the horizon here.

*raises finger in objection*

*thinks of John Hillcoat's filmography*

*lowers finger*

I have no objection to this comment, your honor.

[HipsterTrash]

Hell. Yeah.

I actually think almost all of Hillcoat's films are superb. But The Proposition and The Road are obvious examples that he's suited for this adaptation.

I will wonder what a Todd Field version of this film would be.

[Elgie]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Either incoming masterpiece or misfire on the horizon here.

Better this than the James Franco version.

[snipemonkey]

Hillcoat's The Proposition has a lot of McCarthy (and specifically Blood Meridian) DNA in it, so this is in good hands, IMO. Should be absolutely brutal.

[BloodshotUSA]

Not sure how I feel about it. Hillcoat made The Proposition which is a great movie, but I haven't loved anything else he's done. Lawless was decent but Triple 9 was terrible.

He directed The Road, based on another Cormac McCarthy book. The source material should have made for an incredible movie but the movie just didn't come together like it should have.

Blood Meridian is going to be way harder to adapt than The Road so It'll be interesting to see how the movie turns out. If it gets made that is. I feel like Blood Meridian gets announced with a new director every 4-5 years. I think Tommy Lee Jones was going to direct a film version at one point. Todd Fields (Little Children) was also attached and James Franco was going to direct a film version (thank God that didn't happen). No one has been able to crack the film yet.

[unberechenbar]

I'm always up for more Westerns.

[hanshotfirst1138]

Originally Posted by BloodshotUSA

Not sure how I feel about it. Hillcoat made The Proposition which is a great movie, but I haven't loved anything else he's done. Lawless was decent but Triple 9 was terrible.

He directed The Road, based on another Cormac McCarthy book. The source material should have made for an incredible movie but the movie just didn't come together like it should have.

Blood Meridian is going to be way harder to adapt than The Road so It'll be interesting to see how the movie turns out. If it gets made that is. I feel like Blood Meridian gets announced with a new director every 4-5 years. I think Tommy Lee Jones was going to direct a film version at one point. Todd Fields (Little Children) was also attached and James Franco was going to direct a film version (thank God that didn't happen). No one has been able to crack the film yet.

I kind of hope no one does. The novel is such a masterpiece, I kind of just want it left alone. Peckinpah probably could’ve done it, maybe Huston. But some things are better left alone.

[OnlyJapantown]

People call Blood Meridian unfilmable for good reason. Not only is the prose very distinctive and essential to the novel's themes, but some of the acts depicted are so gruesome that they have never been seen in a movie (that I'm aware of).

The one thing giving me a sliver of hope in all this is Hillcoat's The Proposition - he has shown the capacity to direct without paying mind to enlightenment values, something modern directors seem less and less capable of.

[HipsterTrash]

I feel like there could be a different interpretation of the book. I know that might be heresy but there's enough in that book to do something amazing. And Hillcoat is a great choice to adapt it.

[unberechenbar]

Originally Posted by OnlyJapantown

People call Blood Meridian unfilmable for good reason. Not only is the prose very distinctive and essential to the novel's themes, but some of the acts depicted are so gruesome that they have never been seen in a movie (that I'm aware of).

That makes me even more interested. For how important it is to American literature I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never heard of it before this thread.

[mikevieira]

McCarthy is my favorite author and I was perfectly fine with this staying in pre-production limbo for the rest of my existence but I guess its actually going forward this time... I guess John Hillcoat is a good choice? Better than Ridley Scott at least who I guess showed interest at a time. My expectations are at a 1 right now, even with Hillcoat directing, who I assume is very familiar with the novel. How can he not be? But there is more than just western aspect involved, more than the brutal violence and content which will most likely not make it into the final movie. No major production company would sanction it. But there's also the philosophic aspects of war and God and man's nature and the battle of good against evil. Or just conflict of man being evil. The Judge's laments to the men around the campire on War being God, this NEEDS to be in the movie or you don't have Blood Meridian.

"It was a lone tree burning on the desert. A heraldic tree that the passing storm had left afire. The solitary pilgrim drawn up before it had traveled far to be here and he knelt in the hot sand and held his numbed hands out while all about in that circle attended companies of lesser auxiliaries routed forth into the inordinate day, small owls that crouched silently and stood from foot to foot and tarantulas and solpugas and vinegarroons and the vicious mygale spiders and beaded lizards with mouths black as a chowdog's, deadly to man, and the little desert basilisks that jet blood from their eyes and the small sandvipers like seemly gods, silent and the same, in Jeda, in Babylon. A constellation of ignited eyes that edged the ring of light all bound in a precarious truce before this torch whose brightness had set back the stars in their sockets."

Now put that on the big screen lol

[Poya]

This story needed Jeff Nichols or Vince Gilligan.

[Martoto]

I'm surprised this is going to be a feature. I would have expected it to get turned into a streaming series to do it justice. Maybe we'll get both.

[hanshotfirst1138]

Harold Bloom thought this was essentially the Great American Novel, and he was a hard-ass man to please.

[No Name]

I recall a number of attempts in adapting the novel into a film and it seemed to be a dead-end. Surprised it's finally coming to fruition, but given the novel's plot of being dense, I'm assuming the film is going to be a stripped down version of the novel.

[unberechenbar]

Originally Posted by No Name

I recall a number of attempts in adapting the novel into a film and it seemed to be a dead-end. Surprised it's finally coming to fruition, but given the novel's plot of being dense, I'm assuming the film is going to be a stripped down version of the novel.

Could they adapt it over multiple movies?

[mikevieira]

I think given the pacing and constant flow of the novel, the riders always moving, traveling it would be best as a long single movie. Just my opinion of course.

[KingMinger]

Can't wait to see the reaction videos plastered all over YouTube of the infant getting picked up by the ankles and smashed head first into a boulder. Graphic violence depicted aside they're going to have a real hard time with some of the dialogue too. They should cast Quentin Tarantino as Glanton to alleviate this.