Telegraph on Coppola's dream film OTR

Great Telegraph article from 2004 on Francis Coppola's 36 (now 41) year long quest to make the film 'On The Road'

Quote :

Francis Coppola has dreamt for 36 years of filming Jack Kerouac’s classic novel. David Gritten tells the story

It may be the longest gestation period in cinema history: in 1968, Francis Ford Coppola, then a rising director-screenwriter still in his twenties, bought the film rights to Jack Kerouac’s classic Beat novel On the Road. He sincerely intended to make a film of it, yet, 36 years on, the cameras have still not started rolling. On the Road, hailed as one of the last century’s key novels, has now become one of the great elusive unmade movies.

Hopes were high as recently as two years ago, when Coppola’s company American Zoetrope announced it would finally make On the Road. Joel Schumacher was due to direct; Coppola said Schumacher wanted Colin Farrell (who he had directed in Tigerland) to play a lead role. Novelist Russell Banks (The Sweet Hereafter, Continental Drift) was writing a script.

But, at the recent International Cinema and Literature Forum in Monaco, where screenwriters and novelists gather to discuss film adaptation, Banks said the project appeared to be off.

"I turned in a script, and Francis liked it very much," he said. "Then I heard he wasn’t going to do it. It was off and on. I’ll be surprised, though of course greatly pleased, if he ever makes it."

On the Road recounts the adventures of two rootless drifters, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, hitch-hiking their way across America and living, fuelled by sex and alcohol, on society’s margins.

The two characters were thinly disguised sketches of Kerouac himself and his friend Neal Cassady. When On the Road was published in 1957, becoming an overnight publishing sensation, it introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" to denote a new rebelliousness and restlessness.

In Paris in 1997, Coppola told me he originally wanted to shoot On the Road in black and white on 16 mm film. "I tried to make it, but couldn’t get the money," he said. "Now it keeps becoming more important."

Banks is the fourth screenwriter to try adapting the novel. The first was Michael Herr, author of Dispatches, the acclaimed part-fact, part-fiction work about Vietnam. (He also wrote the narration for Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.) The next effort, written several years later, was by novelist-screenwriter Barry Gifford.

It is known that Coppola and his son Roman worked on a version of On the Road in the 1990s, before Banks was chosen to write a fourth script.

Each time news of the planned film surfaces, the hot young actors of the day become linked with the leading roles. "I’d get calls from gossip columnists, asking if I knew Johnny Depp was auditioning?" recalled Banks. "Brad Pitt was mentioned. I’d say, 'What do I know? I’m just the writer.' "

Read the rest of the Article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3615411/On-the-road-to-nowhere.html
Thanks to @KStewRobFans for finding this!

Thanks for posting!! It's interesting to read how long it's taken, what has transpired in those years, and who may have been considered for the characters at one time...

It will be nice if the two main character will be played by Johnny Deep and Brad Pitt..I can picture them for the role...

MJ23 wrote:

It will be nice if the two main character will be played by Johnny Deep and Brad Pitt..I can picture them for the role...

eww..no i cant. as far as i love both Johnny and Brad. but,please they are too old for the character.and i think Garrett and Sam is perfect for the cast.ive just read the draft script.and trust me.i can totally imagine them playing the roles. Dean is a bad boy and Garrett totally has the bad boy face.i think he can really make it! and Sam plays Sal as a naive man.huhu..i love it

and lastly marylou,OUH MAI GOD.lol imagining Kristen in this kinda role is totally hot.hahaha.
her character was basically just there for the 'sex'. Dean is a douchebag but kinda funny.

after i read the draft script i fell in love with the story and characters even more im sure kristen,garrett and sam can do this. CANT WAIT FOR THE FILMING TO START!