May 14, 2012

On the Road at Cannes

As you read this, airplanes from around the globe are descending on France with hundreds of people poised to attend The 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Some of those people are Walter Salles, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund and many other members of the cast and production team from On the Road.

Talk about an exciting time! For over thirty years, thousands upon thousands of Beat Generations fans of all nationalities have been anxiously awaiting this historic event. The debates have raged: “Who are the right actors & actresses?” “How can anyone ever do On the Road justice?” “What would Kerouac think?” “Don’t screw with my personal vision of that book!”

All I know is I’ve had the pleasure and good fortune to have been witness to this unfolding since 2005 when I sat in John Allen Cassady’s living room in San Jose, California along with his mother Carolyn Cassady and his sisters Cathy and Jami as they spoke to screenwriter Jose Rivera who was visiting for the day.

As the core group of both Kerouac and Beat Generation fans we all feel we have a stake in this film. It’s a tribute both to a great work of art as well as real-life people most of us never met who had a tremendous impact on many of our lives.

As a fan I couldn’t be more proud. After thirty years, this is the team of filmmakers who got it done. And they got it done in a fashion that allowed the film to be selected for arguably the premier film festival on the planet – The Cannes Film Festival. No small feat.

Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy the show.

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A PLETHORA OF LINKS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

• Cannes Film Festival Official Website (English version)
  On the Road premieres May 23rd, 2012

• The Scroll Arrives in Paris

  In conjunction with the movie premiere, Kerouac’s scroll just arrived in Paris and will be on display from May 16 – August 19

• Le Musée des lettres et manuscrits

  The Museum of Letters & Manuscripts in Paris where JK’s Scroll is on exhibit (website is in French)

• Kristen Stewart agreed to a massive pay cut to appear in On the Road

  HollywoodReporter

• Casting and Initial Thoughts

  The Beat Museum Blog, August 16, 2010

• John Allen Cassady Misses His Chance with Kristen Stewart

  The Beat Museum Blog, November 1, 2010

• Filming Concludes for On the Road in San Francisco

  The Beat Museum Blog, December 12, 2010

• 4,000 Miles in a ’49 Hudson

  2nd Unit Shoot for On The Road: The Huffington Post, July 12, 2011

• The ’49 Hudson Comes to The Beat Museum

  The Beat Museum Blog, December 13, 2011

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April 4, 2012

First look at Kill Your Darlings

In 1944, nascent writers Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were arrested as material witnesses in the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr, their close friend and early leader of the intellectual circle which would become the Beat Generation. This event had life-altering consequences for both. Kerouac, unable to secure bail money from his father, was compelled to marry then-girlfriend Edie Parker. Burroughs’ morphine habit worsened as he struggled to deal with the death of his old friend (Kammerer), developing into a dependency that dogged him throughout his life.

Kerouac and Burroughs decided to collaborate on a novel about the murder. Each wrote alternating chapters, and in 1945 they completed And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a hard-boiled mystery novel in the style of Dashiell Hammett.

Though Burroughs would later comment that Hippos was “not a distinguished work,” and that “it wasn’t sensational enough to make it…nor was it well-written or interesting enough to make it [from] a purely literary point of view,” the real-life events it was based on are nonetheless compelling. So compelling, in fact, that they’re the basis for writer/director John Krokidas’ new film, Kill Your Darlings.

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) portrays 18-year-old Allen Ginsberg in mid-Forties New York City, while David Cross, no doubt in a nod to his cameo as Allen in I’m Not There, is slated to play his father, Louis Ginsberg. Ben Foster (Rampart, 3:10 to Yuma) will play Burroughs. Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Dane DeHaan (True Blood, In Treatment) are to portray David Kammerer and Lucien Carr, respectively. Edie Parker’s character will be played by Elizabeth Olsen (yes—the Olsen Twins’ older sister).

While the internet is abuzz about Radcliffe’s casting, perhaps most impressive is Dane DeHaan’s striking resemblance to the real-life Lucien Carr.

What we find most compelling about this story is that earlier on the same day as Kammerer’s murder, Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr had attempted to stow away on a merchant marine ship bound for France, hoping to reach Paris in time for the Allied liberation. They planned to travel across Europe in the guise of a deaf-mute (Carr) and his French translator (Kerouac). They were discovered last-minute by the first mate and thrown off the ship, but had they succeeded, the history of the Beat Generation would have been radically different. Kerouac probably would never have met Neal Cassady, never written On the Road, and (possibly) never even visited San Francisco. Of course, Carr wouldn’t have killed Kammerer, either. Who knows? Had events transpired differently, the ‘King of the Beats’ may very well have been Lucien Carr, rather than Kerouac.

Few other details about the film have been made public at this point, but we’ll be keeping you posted on further developments.

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March 14, 2012

Video from Jack Kerouac’s 90th Birthday

by Jerry Cimino

So many people who love Kerouac and his works wanted to join in our 90th Birthday celebration, that we decided to hold it over a span of two days. On Sunday, March 11th, Al Hinkle (Big Ed Dunkel from On the Road) and John Allen Cassady (first person in the history of the world to be named after Jack Kerouac) shared the stage. On Monday, March 12th (Jack’s birthday) the good folks from V¡va Editions and Cleis Press gathered poets and writers from all over to celebrate. People around the world offered their skills with a tribute video, and Garrett Hedlund himself called in from New York to say hello to those gathered.

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Garrett Hedlund’s phone call on JK’s Birthday (4:27):

Special thanks to Laura Schibinger, Elle Lutz, and Noémie Sornet for putting this video together! They also created the following video tribute to Kerouac:

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It was a special two days. We heard Al Hinkle‘s stories about his friend Jack Kerouac, and John Cassady’s stories about his father, Neal Cassady. One new piece of information that came out that I’d never heard before is that Al Hinkle’s father actually knew Neal’s father. Al’s father was a Denver police detective, and Neal Cassady, Sr. was well known to all the police in Denver in those days. Al mentioned casually how sometimes when Cassady Sr. was incarcerated, his father would go fetch his barbering tools so that Cassady Sr. could cut all the inmates’ and police officers’ hair! I was flabbergasted. I said, “Al, are you saying Neal Cassady’s father used to cut your father’s hair in the prison in Denver?” Al said, “Absolutely. He did it often. Neal Sr. was a trustee, and he cut everyone’s hair.”

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John Allen Cassady on Neal’s Turkish Hookah Pipe (10:43):

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We were entertained by The Dharma Bums from Woodstock, New York, as well as Chris Chandler, Alan Kaufman, Nicole Henares, Brenda Knight, Tony Rodriguez and Joanna McClure. Nicole’s students from Lowell High School in San Francisco (a happy naming coincidence) kept calling her Ms. Hernares as we lined them all up in front of the ’49 Hudson to get a group shot.

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Chris Chandler performs ‘Generica’ (2:11):

Video by Mary Burns

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Photos

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As he cut the birthday cake in Jack’s honor, I heard Al Hinkle say softly under his breath, “My friend. My friend. I loved him!”

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Al Hinkle blowing out the candles on JK’s cake (1:36):

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