I remember reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a few years after publication and people asked me what it was about I told them it was about a boy and 9/11, so heavily do the events of that day cast a shadow over the events.
The book’s protagonist is nine year old Oskar Schell, whose father was killed in the World Trade Center attacks and who left behind a key, and Oskar being an inquisitive sort, travels around New York to discover the lock it fits. News today from THR is that Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry has signed on to bring this book to the screen.
Oskar is a brilliant invention of Safran Foer, and in bringing the book to the screen Daldry will have to repeat his recent casting successes with young actors as the young boy is everything to the book. THR also state that Eric Roth, who recently adapted The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has done the honours here and Daldry will need a decent script to convey the wonderful collision of the mundane and the miraculous in this boy’s head.
Daldry’s The Reader was a solid film and I’m always interested to see what he comes up with and in Safran Foer’s book he has a unique and forceful narrative to play with. Fingers crossed.
