Why is Blood Meridian unfilmable ?

Everyone who has ever read this piece of genius certainly wondered why this project always strands in development hell. Blood Meridian is regarded as one of the most unfilmable books ever written. Cormac McCarthy himself said he would love to see his book getting transferred to the screen. No Country For Old Men and The Road where both done justice and while Blood Meridian is one of a kind I can't see why it would be so impossible to film.
These are the things difficult to portray, but it can certainly be done :

1) The Judge

most talked about is The Judge. Who can portray a character like this ? The Judge is a character which is as hard to portray physically as in acting skill. He is described as a tall man with albino skin and no facial hair at all. He has a nightmare-inducing grin and he is a huge dude, while he isn't muscled nor fat. He seems to have infant hands and feet. On top of that he is a character that seems to know everything. He comes off like he knows everything about nature, everything that happened in the past, everything that will happen in the future,...like he time traveled 5000 years forth and 2000 years back. He is highly intelligent, yet barbaric. Devilish, yet human. Evil incarnate, but he feels like a normal man despite of his appearance.
A character like this should be done justice. The question is : who will be able to portray him ? Tom Noonan, Val Kilmer, John Goodman are some of my picks. Still then he has to get some enhancements.

2) The atmosphere

The atmosphere is very difficult to portray on film. The whole book reeks of decay and death, of vomit-inducing rotting flesh. But there are still glimpses of melancholia, of beauty, of a kind of nostalgia. It may be unfair to compare this to a ( although great) horror movie, but this book gave me the same feel Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre gave me when I first watched it.
1 cup of Texas Chainsaw Massacre '74 + 1 cup of Lynch + 1 cup of High Plains Drifter + a tablespoon of Jodorowsky ( first extract the carnivaleske music ) = Blood Meridian's atmosphere.

3) The Kid

Directors are reluctant to work with kids when it comes to violent movies. That's just one of the worries...
A fan's biggest nightmare would be to see that they are casting some kind of Hollywood pretty face in the role of The Kid. That's not to say The Kid should be ugly as crap, but he has to have that weathered, hardened, but still sad look about him.

4) The violence

NC-17 at best.
I have read lots of sick books ( The Bighead is an example) but the thing is : there has to be a middle road in between 'what is shown' and 'how it is shown'. A sick act comes of as sick in a book, but that doesn't mean it's shocking. The books I read where fun, but the violence came of as silly ( which I'm sure was the intention). The violence in Blood Meridian comes of as equally sick, but 10 times more shocking. The slaughter is never ending : people blown apart, mangled, scalped, hanged, hacked to pieces, tortured, bludgeoned and crushed. Throats are slashed, axes cleave open skulls and dying people are brutally raped. People wail in excrement and decapitated heads are played with while rotting and oozing goo. What I just described is half of the acts that are described in the book. It can come of as over the top and silly, but the thing is it doesn't. It's insane, graphic, brutal, sickening,...but it isn't over the top. Violence like this should be filmed by a skilled director who has the balls to do Cannibal Holocaust on the scale of Saving Private Ryan.

5) The scenery

Along with the atmosphere comes the scenery. The feel is as sick as it is beautiful. The landscapes described in the book are as eerie and disturbing as they are beautiful. Tennessee, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and the Mexican border all play an important role in the book. The scenery has to be breathtaking, dreamy and nightmarish at the same time.

6) The budget

we have a definite NC-17, but we have to have a great budget. Great actors, a great director, a great cinematographer are all on the checklist. Let's not forget about the towns, prisons, barns, saloons, Mexican villages,...you have to set up to make this work. A budget around $100 million should do.

7) The running time

The book is around 340 pages long, but a lot happens in the book. This is a story you can't just rush. You need to pay attention to the scenery, the pace and the battles should be quick and furious. In order to let everything come alive you have to be patient. You can't fit all in a 120 minute picture. Double that running time and it should do.
The question is : is it mainstream enough to attract audiences that are willing to sit through the big running time ?

8) The realism - The surrealism

The book is realistic, but it's still surreal. This isn't easy to transfer to the screen. The feel, the look, the pace all should contribute to this. The shots have to completely right.

9) The dialogue

You have to pay attention to the dialogues as they are crucial to the story. They are brutal, philosophical and metaphysical. You can't leave them out because they almost sum up the punchline : violence is what runs the world.

10) The slight touches of humor

There are some darkly comedic touches in the book. Some of the situations and reflections can be funny, but the humor is more uneasy than it is laugh-out loud funny. You can smile, but that would only be a smile of uneasiness.

Is this book difficult to film ? Yes, it's unbelievable difficult. The fact that it's difficult doesn't mean it can't be done however. We are unfortunate to live in a cinematic world where the MPAA still reigns and decide if your film will flop or not. Studios are really hesitant to give a big budget to a film that will receive anything above a PG-13. Stuff like this makes me angry. It isn't about the rating, it's about the film.
People who want to make this film have to make sure they do anything to let the story come alive on the screen and to do justice to the book.
I'd say : give John Hillcoat or why not Mel Gibson a shot ?

Mood: Pissed!

YoshioKun13 at 04:39 AM Jul 09

I had to read this for one of my English college courses, it was a 'Western'-theme for that semester. From what I remember of it, I dug it. And I don't usually like Westerns, be it book or film. But yeah, this was unbelievably bloody & violent.

The rumor from awhile ago was that Ridley Scott was going to direct the movie adaptation. That would've been awesome.

Begbiepwns at 08:34 AM Jul 09

The problem with Ridley Scott is : he is a great director but I fear he's too 'blockbuster' for something like this.
Then again, Mel Gibson is also pretty mainstream but his action set-pieces are grittier.
John Hillcoat would be perfect

The videogames that rocked my youth

While I don't consider myself an avid gamer, I really love a good videogame from time to time. A great game to play with friends is of course something along the lines of Fifa or NBA Live. I will, however, not include this games because those are not the 'game experiences' I am referring to. I am referring to games I have played a long long time ago or I have just played recently ( and with recently I mean : 1-2 years ago). Games on which I look back at with teardrops of nostalgia in my eyes. (I know that sounded gay).
However :

1) Resident Evil

I was born in 1991, Resident Evil came out in 1996 and I first played this game in 2000. Many would consider a game 'outdated' but I can't remember that was the case in those days when me and my friends were young and innocent ( well ,not innocent ).
The moment that zombie looked over his back was the first time a videogame left a lasting impression on me. Resident Evil was creepy and fun when I look back at it.

2) Mortal Kombat 3

The same year I played Resident Evil I took a shot at Mortal Kombat. Its fantasy-like feel and its - then shocking, now hilariously dated- fatalities won me over. Till this day I still am a fan of the Mortal Kombat-concept because there's so much you can do with the material. Personally I always choose Mortal Kombat over Tekken or StreetFighter.

3) GTA : San Andreas

Years passed and, outside of the occasional Fifa-experience, I didn't really think about gaming. Then GTA : SA came out. I didn't have any real experiences with GTA before that, I even played Vice City after I played SA.
The first time I popped SA in my newly bought ps2 was unnatural. I still play this game from time to time and were 2011 now while the game came out in 2004. The atmosphere was great, the music ( 'you dropped a bomb on me' , 'mother' , 'IT'S A MIHHHIIIDLIFFFFEEEE CRIIIIHHIIISSIISSS' , 'hellraiser' to the insane collection of rap music from the likes of NWA, Dr Dre, Cypress Hill,...),... I still freakin' love this game. I played Vice City and I played GTA IV but for me this one is the best GTA ever made, period. Running around causing all around mayhem in Downtown SA even felt better then the mayhem I caused at school with my mathematics-teacher.

4) Half-Life 2

My first creepy encounter with games was in the same year with Half-Life 2. And I do mean creepy as all hell.
''wake up mr. freeman wake up and smell the ashesssss...'' G-Man is a genius, who the hell is that guy except for the figure that gave me nightmares for years. Ravenholm still is one awesome level to go through and the small music part ( you see at an abandoned television while G-Man is on with a crow on his shoulder) still haunts me.
With Half-Life 2 and GTA : SA I again encountered two games that created a 'world'.

5) Manhunt

This one came out a year before GTA : SA. I never heard about it untill our class took a trip to London ( another event that fills me with joy when I look back at it). On the boat we were dicussing games and a friend of me dropped the word 'Manhunt'. While we were in a big store I saw the game and I bought it.
At home I first played Manhunt and it was the third game that year that made such an impression on me. It felt cheaper than SA and Half-Life sure but it was awesome in its concept. It was at the same time brutal as fuck, creepy and hilarious in a way. Piggsy, the gangs,...this game was tense but it still cracked me up.
Game that created a 'world' #3 of the year.

6) F.E.A.R.

Time to buy a ps3.
A year later after HL 2 and Manhunt creeped me out, along came FEAR. This game did almost the same Manhunt did. Another dark feel, less darkly comic, but still creepy and scary as hell.
The action was great and everytime Alma turned up I almost started to curse because of the tension.

7) Bioshock

After I was slightly disappointed in 2006, Bioshock came out in 2007. Another game that created an entire universe on itself. It managed to be creepy, brutal and visually impressive at the same time. Rapture was magnificent and the Big Daddy's were great.

8) Fallout 3

2008 was a great great year for games. The game I played the most that year ( and I played lots of games that year) was Fallout 3. The graphics were glorious, the atmosphere was eerie, the violence off the charts,... I had many great moments with this game : some of them humorous, others eerie as hell...all of them Atmospheric with the capital A. I played this game for weeks. I still like Fallout 3 better than the recent New Vegas.

9) Dead Space

Another creepfest. The Necromorphs are a work of pure brilliance. This game was gross, fun and scary. The whole space-environment that was created was beautifully envisioned. Fallout 3 was really tense at moments, but Dead Space was the first game since F.E.A.R. that carried this tension throughout.

10) Gears Of War 2

I didn't own an X-Box, but my nephew did.
When he said to me he had an 'X-Box exclusive' I didn't know what to think of it. Gears Of War 2 was brilliant. I never played the first one, but this game almost made it worthwhile to buy an X-Box. My parents wouldn't allow me to buy another console so countless times I played this game at my nephews.
The graphics were beautiful, the action was insanely crazy and the world was huge.

11) God Of War 3

2009 was another year that left me disappointed but 2010 would make up for that.
The first game was God Of War 3 and holy shit what a game that is. We deal with battlescapes that reach above anything I played previously, with unmatched brutality and with an environment that is a feast to the eyeballs. I wasn't a big fan of the first two games in the series, but this one became an instant favorite.

12) Red Dead Redemption

'GTA with horses' some called it. Well you could argue that's the concept but oh boy what an execution. The storyline is great, the created environment almost poetic in its beauty, while Rockstar still made the ability to 'cause mayhem' possible.

13) Call Of Duty : Black Ops

Again I wasn't all that much of a big gamer. The most recent game I bought was COD : Black Ops. I remember liking some of the other COD's but I didn't really play them until the disc almost burned up.
The latest one almost did that for me. The whole environment felt tense and desolated, while the action remained awesome. Some people I've spoken to consider this one of the weaker games in the series. I don't know why, but I think this game is awesome.

So far so good, I am really excited for what the future of gaming will bring.

Mood: Chillin'