One of the most anticipated films of this fall festival season is Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn.” The film is set to play at many of the big fall events and perhaps even contend for some awards at the end of the year. And thanks to a new interview with Vanity Fair, we have a first look at the film and why Norton decided to make some big changes from the film’s source material.
For those that don’t know, “Motherless Brooklyn” is based on the novel of the same name from author Jonathan Lethem. The story follows a private investigator as he finds himself caught in a potentially massive conspiracy surrounding New York City and one of the biggest builders in the country.
However, just because Norton is adapting the best-selling novel doesn’t mean that he’s beholden to the story, as it’s presented by Lethem. In fact, one of the things that fans of the book will notice immediately is that the writer-director turned the modern-day mystery novel into a period piece, transporting the characters and setting to the 1950s.
“Jonathan’s book is this incredible character,” Norton said. “It was set in the late ’90s but it had a quality to it of an anachronistic bubble of acting like ’50s gumshoes. I made the case to Jonathan that film is very literal, and I didn’t think I wanted to make something that felt like irony.”
READ MORE: NYFF Selects Edward Norton’s ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ As The Festival’s Closing Night Film
Norton has put together a great cast for his radical vision of “Motherless Brooklyn.” Joining Norton in the ensemble are Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Bruce Willis, and Willem Dafoe. And in describing Dafoe’s character, Norton called him “the Jedi knight in rags. I call him the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the film, if Alec Baldwin is Darth Vader.”
“Motherless Brooklyn” is doing the festival rounds this fall before arriving in theaters on November 1. You can look at the first images below:
