Movies
Lionel Shriver: 'I feared Justin Bieber as alternate Kevin'
Published Saturday, Oct 22 2011, 20:45 BST | By Mayer Nissim | 3 comments
Lionel Shriver has said that she "dodged a bullet" with the "terrific" film adaptation of her novel We Need To Talk About Kevin.
The author told The Guardian that she was "tortured" by an imagined alternate universe where a mainstream Hollywood director took over the project instead of Lynne Ramsay.
"Thus in this doppelgänger Kevin, this evil twin of Lynne's creation, perhaps Eva, my troubled, traumatised protagonist, would be played not by the uncompromising Tilda Swinton, but a perky, pretty face like Cameron Diaz," she said.
"Instead of using a relative unknown for the adolescent Kevin - Ezra Miller, whose uneasy presence and sleazy, uncomfortable sexuality electrify the film - a Hollywood director might persuade the adorable Justin Bieber to play the part... They retitle the movie High School Hijinks."
She added: "I've been spared. Awful film adaptations follow novelists for the rest of their lives. An atrocious movie of We Need to Talk About Kevin could have stigmatised the book, aggrieved the novel's fans and blighted my reputation for ever.
"People will often buy the original novel if it is made into a film they fancied, but never the source material for a film they despised. Thank you, thank you, Lynne and [screenwriter] Rory [Stewart Kinnear]. Another life just passed before my eyes, and it wasn't pretty."
> We Need To Talk About Kevin trailer and poster
> London Film Festival 2011: Our top ten picks
Watch our interview with Lynne Ramsay and Ezra Miller below:
The author told The Guardian that she was "tortured" by an imagined alternate universe where a mainstream Hollywood director took over the project instead of Lynne Ramsay.
© Digital Spy
© PA Images / PA WIRE
"Thus in this doppelgänger Kevin, this evil twin of Lynne's creation, perhaps Eva, my troubled, traumatised protagonist, would be played not by the uncompromising Tilda Swinton, but a perky, pretty face like Cameron Diaz," she said.
"Instead of using a relative unknown for the adolescent Kevin - Ezra Miller, whose uneasy presence and sleazy, uncomfortable sexuality electrify the film - a Hollywood director might persuade the adorable Justin Bieber to play the part... They retitle the movie High School Hijinks."
She added: "I've been spared. Awful film adaptations follow novelists for the rest of their lives. An atrocious movie of We Need to Talk About Kevin could have stigmatised the book, aggrieved the novel's fans and blighted my reputation for ever.
"People will often buy the original novel if it is made into a film they fancied, but never the source material for a film they despised. Thank you, thank you, Lynne and [screenwriter] Rory [Stewart Kinnear]. Another life just passed before my eyes, and it wasn't pretty."
> We Need To Talk About Kevin trailer and poster
> London Film Festival 2011: Our top ten picks
Watch our interview with Lynne Ramsay and Ezra Miller below:
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