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‘Into the Wild’: Sean Penn Adapts Jon Krakauer’s Book for the Big Screen

Great cast - Emile Hirsch has yet to let me down in anything he’s done. It’s really going to hinge on Sean Penn’s screenplay though I think… Hopefully he can writebetter than he can row a boat.

I’ve always wanted to read the book and this reminded to pick it up. So that’s a good thing. As for the movie, the trailer is lame. But at least over-the-top Penn isn’t actually in it. So there’s hope.

Whatever the case, I doubt this flick can top Werner Herzog’s bizarro doc, Grizzly Man.

Somehow I doubt Sean Penn has spent much time in the Denali wilderness. It’s going to be interesting to see how they pull this off given that the main character spends most of his time utterly alone and not talking. Who are all these other charaters? It’s not like they can pull the “wilson” thing like they did in that Tom Hanks flick Castaway.

Rachel: Actually when I was in Alaska last August the crew of Into The Wild (including Sean Penn) were in the area.  He was in Denali a few days before I was from what I was told by park service rangers.

Granted he probably hasn’t spent significant time, but it is pretty easy to helicopter to a remote area of Denali and it doesn’t take too long to realize how utterly remote and dangerous it is for someone who is unprepared for the environment.

I’m pretty positive the crew, including Sean Penn, made a visit to the location where McCandless spent his final days.

Ironically I ran into Ben Affleck on that Alaska trip.  Made me wonder if he was connected to the “Into The Wild” movie but he wasn’t, just a coincidence.  I ran into him while having dinner at the Double Musky Inn in Girdwood, Alaska.  Great restaurant.  Who would have thought at the end of a dirt road an hour outside of Anchorage you could have a world class meal… and run into Ben Affleck in a white stretch limo.

hello.  I wrote a song about Chris called “Outside,” about five years ago.  It may not be Vedder-quality, but I wonder if anyone would like to hear it and where I can post it.  JF

If anything, the publicity generated by the film finally got Chris McCandless’s last photograph of him waving goodbye published and I finally got to see it.  One of the most poignant photographs ever, knowing the back story.

A Traveler, is that photo online? Got a link?

The picture is in the lastest issue of Men’s Journal (Sept 2007) along with a few other photographs of McCandless out in the wilderness.

You can see it briefly on a dvd about another misadventure in the wilderness called “Survivor:  The Aron Ralston Story.”

Mike, I’ve emailed the pic to you.

I agree.  I also greet the film with cautious pessimism. Let’s face it, we are never as enamored with the film as we are with the book.  I can think of one exception off the top of my head; I enjoyed Walter Mosley’s “Devil In A Blue Dress” on the big screen as much as I did the book. But for every “Devil In A Blue Dress”, there’s 100 Da Vinci Code’s.  One noticeable change you’ll notice from the “Into The Wild” trailer is that instead of steering an old metal canoe from Bullhead City to Mexico, searching for an outlet to the ocean, the movie has McCandless in a nice looking kayak taming the wilds of the Colorado R. in the Grand Canyon.  I think McCandless’ spontaneuous, harrowing expedition down into Mexico is much more interesting than a Hollywood whitewater trip.

I read the book in the spring of 99 before I left for my own “wild”. I was touched and certain the story changed my life. The only suggestion i would make, read the book and listen to nick drake, five leaves left. I think Penn could have picked a better sound track. we’ll see if the movie comes through.