 THE LATEST
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
"What [Allen] Ginsberg forced us to understand in Howl…is that nothing is safe from poetry." - Paul Zweig  Twenty-nine years old, poor and unpublished, Allen Ginsberg sat down at his desk in early August of 1955 to type out his "imaginative sympathies." What, instead, came pouring out of his old, second-hand typewriter was Howl, a poem that would set in motion not only his own career but those of his fellow Beat poets. Part autobiography, part manifesto, part prophecy, part spiritual memoir, Howl was something altogether different in the world of American literature. Ginsberg had found a new voice and its impact would be felt not simply in the world of poetry but in American popular culture. Fifty years later, at a moment when American militarism is at the center of national debate, when issues of public obscenity and freedom of speech are once again making headlines, HOWL, the movie, will celebrate this groundbreaking work that helped pave a path for artistic freedom, social critique and sexual candor. Using the poem as its guide, HOWL will offer a modern cinematic journey through Ginsberg's world and his imaginative universe. Using animation, documentary footage, and a dramatic re-creation of the landmark obscenity trial, this feature-length film will re-imagine a 20th-century milestone for a 21st-century audience.
 The year is 1978. The place: suburban New Jersey. While other teenagers are coming of age, 13 year-old Robin MacKenzie is coming undone. . . Telling Pictures has optioned K.M. Soehnlein's Lambda Award-winning novel The World of Normal Boys to adapt as a fiction film. As soon as we read this dazzling first novel, we knew we wanted to bring it to the screen. It resonated with both of our childhoods -- Rob's in New Jersey, Jeffrey's in New York City; and we were moved and exhilarated at the book's uncompromising look at a gay adolescent coming of age. The New York Times Book Review concurs: "Soehnlein makes the familiar strange. . . This is a rich and unflinching book." And author Edmund White writes, "The World of Normal Boys carefully lifts off the roofs of surburban houses to reveal the baroque configurations of family guilt and sexual desire that are hidden behind those nearly uniform exteriors. This first novel is so eloquent because it is hellbent on collaring the reader and telling him or her the whole passionate story." Author Karl Soehnlein is writing the screenplay.  |
HOWL: THE MOVIE COMING SOON
