Is there a way we could possibly anticipate Walter Salles’ long-gestating adaptation of “On The Road” — which already stars Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley and Garret Hedlund — any more than we already do?
The answer apparently is hell yes as Deadline just reported that Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams have been added to the cast.
While the younger cast are playing the principals of the seminal Beat Generation novel — Riley will star as Jack Kerouac’s alter ego Sal Paradise, Hedlund has been cast as Neal Cassady surrogate Dean Moriarty, Stewart has confirmed that she will play Mary Lou and Dunst will be playing Camille (Cassady’s wife) — Mortensen will play Old Bull Lee who is the William S. Burroughs alternate in this largely autobiographical work. Adams will play his junkie wife known as Jane.
The film begins shooting this month in several locations including New Mexico, Montreal and New Orleans. Francis Ford Coppola, who has been trying to make an adaptation of this film since the 1970s, is a producer along with Rebecca Yeldham, who produced Salles’ “The Motorcycle Diaries” — the picture that caught Coppola’s eye and convinced him that the Brazilian filmmaker was the right man for the job. Screenwriter José Rivera, who also penned the young Che Guevara travelogue, wrote the “On The Road” adaptation as well.
The picture has been five years in the making for Salles, immersing himself on the topic so much he made a documentary about his voyage, so far titled “In Search of On the Road.” Earlier this year when we caught the director speaking in San Francisco, he insisted that if/when his “On The Road” picture would actually happen (he received his funding just a few weeks later) it would be shot in black and white. We’ll see if that holds true or not, but either way, we’re excited and happy to see this picture finally come to the screen. The killer cast doesn’t hurt. Most anticipated for 2011? Definitely up there.
