Short fiction meets Hollywood with Fitzgerald story

Nov 02 2008

This morning after I woke up, I turned the television on and caught the last few minutes of Mad Men. During the commercial break, however, there was a trailer for a movie I had originally wrote about in this post. The movie will be released soon and is an adaptation of a short story called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Originally written by early twentieth century author F. Scott Fitzgerald, this was a story I can remember reading in my younger years and really enjoying. So naturally, I’m very intrigued that it has been made into a movie.

Of course, what’s more intriguing is that it’s a short story. No movies in recent memory have been based off of short fiction, as Hollywood has a penchant for taking novels in the pop fiction genre and totally twisting them around until the movie barely resembles anything in the book.

The movie, scheduled to come out on Christmas day, still looks interesting, mostly because the story itself is very fascinating. A baby (Benjamin Button) is born into the body of an old man, who can talk. And as the years go by, when Benjamin should be getting older, he’s actually getting younger. You can probably guess that Benjamin will eventually reach the age when he’s only a baby.

I don’t go to the movies very often anymore. This is due to the lackluster quality of most movies, and the fact that my movie-going experience is usually ruined by other patrons who talk, yap on their cell phones and any number of other distractions. But I might just see this movie, only because I like the story and Fitzgerald was one of my favorite authors growing up and really influenced my writing.

One Response

I love Benjamin Button. I hadn’t heard that this was being made into a movie. Very exciting! You’re right in saying that it’s rare for Hollywood to base films off of short stories. There are a few instances. Most recently, Steve Martin’s novella, Shop Girl, was made into a film. That’s unusual, however. Thanks again for sharing the news! I hope your movie-going experience will be pleasant!

MLRebecca 11/4/2008 3:08 pm