UNUSUAL PASSAGE TO INDIA
Thanks to the thoughtfulness of my friend Kia, who is in town from South Africa, I now own Shantaram, a 936 page semi-autobiographical first-novel by Gregory David Roberts that has earned him comparisons to Herman Melville and Ernest Hemingway. One of Shantaram's biggest fans is Johnny Depp, who purchased the rights to it for $2 million and will star in its big-screen adaptation, which is reportedly going to hit theaters sometime in late 2009, right in the thick of Oscar season. Considering the immense talent joining Depp on the production—including the producers of the Oscar-winning The Departed, Brad Grey, Graham King, and Brad Pitt; the great Indian actor Irfan Khan, last seen in The Namesake; and Mira Nair, the revered Indian director of that acclaimed film and many others—it seems to have the promise to be very good.
Good enough to finally bring Depp an Oscar, you ask? Perhaps. At this point, we obviously know very little about the rumored 2008 awards contenders, to say nothing of those that may (or may not) vie for statuettes in 2009... but I'll admit that I'm starting to drink the Kool-Aid on the basis of the epic nature of the story; the rich and troubled central character; reports that Russell Crowe was so disappointed that the lead role was already claimed that he offered to be an executive producer on the film just so he could be associated with it; and, perhaps most impressively to me, the gushing endorsement I was given by well-read Kia: "one of the greatest books I've ever come across." I would promise to get back to you with better-informed thoughts upon completing the novel, but based on the size of it—and despite my best intentions—I'm afraid that might take until 2010!
