If there has been one consistent thing about portrayals of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg on the big screen, it's that the actors lined up to play him have always been unpredictable. John Turturro, Hank Azaria, David Cross and James Franco have all tackled the part over the years, and now another unlikely candidate has reportedly arrived.
Twitch reveal that Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, is set to take on the iconic poet in the long-developing indie "Kill Your Darlings." First announced way back in 2009 with Jesse Eisenberg, Ben Whishaw and Chris Evans (who have all become considerably bigger in the intervening years) in the lead roles, it appears that casting is starting over with Radcliffe filling in for the departed Eisenberg. First time director John Krokidas is at the helm of the project, with a script written by himself and his ex-Yale roommate Austin Bunn, which will center on Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr. The latter being the person who famously introduced the pair and, more sordidly, murdered his lover David Kammerer.
No word yet on who will join him in the roles of Kerouac and Carr, but it seems the Beats are set to come racing back into the pop cultural sphere. Walter Salles will deliver his star studded "On The Road" next year, so perhaps the kids will rediscover its characters' historic writing all over again, albeit on the Kindle or iPad or whatever it is people use these days to read. As for Radcliffe, we admire the ambition, but let's see if he has the sauce the pull off the job.
