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Don't Drive Angry!

By Steven Lloyd Wilson | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (6)

replay.jpg

Replay is a brilliant 1987 science fiction novel by Ken Grimwood, a novel that is the spiritual precursor to the dark elements of the film Groundhog Day. The book begins with the protagonist having a heart attack and then waking up when he was eighteen, with all the memories of the next twenty five years intact. It’s got that perfect mixture of hope at being able to live life differently, and existential dread at reliving all the things that never change. And then when the moment of his death approaches he once again has a heart attack and once again wakes up younger, but this time a little bit later. And so he goes, living life after life, the length of the replays diminishing like a count down.

Grimwood died in 2003, reportedly while working on a sequel to Replay, and the movie rights have bummed around for a few years, but rumor has it that there’s a new script in play by Jason Smilovic (who has previously only written Lucky Number Slevin for the big screen along with a smattering of producer and writer credits for “Bionic Woman,” “Kidnapped,” “Karen Sisco,” and “My Own Worst Enemy”). Smilovic rewrote a script by Richard LaGravenese due to the interest of Ben Affleck in directing the film.

I’m singling it out mostly because it’s an example of a perfect sort of novel for film adaptation. There are no effects to screw up, the science fiction is strictly internalized, so there are no things that exist in your head that get ruined when visualized onto screen. The story is all character, but it’s about his interplay with the outside world so the adaptation doesn’t suffer as with stories that lose all meaning when taken out of the protagonist’s head.


(source: SlashFilm)









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Comments

I loved this book, but I can see it very easily getting super cheesy in the wrong hands. Especially the section about the stupid dolphin movie. That whole part was just ridiculous.

Posted by: Jadashay at October 20, 2010 10:22 AM

I smell a montage!

Posted by: Kballs at October 20, 2010 10:54 AM

When I was about 20 years old, I started wishing that I could wake up in my later life, say 10 years down the road, for just an hour in the middle of the night. I wanted to walk around and see where I was and who I was with. A little later, I wished I could go back to high school "knowing what I know now". When I was 30, I was glad it hadn't awakened for a 3 am life check as I felt I would have been disappointed, but I still wanted to wake up for an hour as a 40 year old and have that look around. Now that I am in my 40s I spend time wishing I could go back and change one or two things or simply "get it" sooner. Just one thing. I've even thought about what I would change depending on where I could change it. Of course, I wouldn't be where I am now and while it is fine, I don't believe in the fatalistic clap trap that what is meant to be will be or that we are doomed to repeat our own mistakes. I wish I could shake 16 year old me, or 20 year old me, or 25 year old me...you get the idea and say "Get a clue. Have a plan. Don't be so uptight/scared". You might say to me, but then you wouldn't have your child or you wouldn't have this or that. My response is that I wouldn't know the difference and I might have other things.

On a lighter note, but in the same vein: Recently, I was feeling tritely superior at work to someone who makes 6 times more money because I knew it was "per diem" and not "per deim" when the voice in my head said, "You know, this isn't grade three. It doesn't really matter any more who is the best speller. That's why he has someone like you to check these things for him."

You reach a point where you feel kind of locked in and the lottery really is your only option. Here's the thing: They are right when they tell you that money doesn't make you a better person or what defines who you are. What they omit is that money is actually very important and makes a big difference in your life. Money quite simply and in an all-encompassing manner can make your life easier. Following your dreams while poetic and all to-thine-own-self-be-truey is expensive in many ways.

Contrary to the self-pity evidenced above, I'm not terribly unhappy. I just wish I had done better. I know I could have. I even know that in the end all of my problems are western middle class problems and I shouldn't complain. That's usually when my spouse points out that even when I feel unhappy, I find some way to justify not having the right to be unhappy and therefore add it to my list of failures.

Now who wants a cookie?

Posted by: Jane Doe at October 20, 2010 11:01 AM

Feel better Jane?

I'll take two.

Posted by: Sam at October 20, 2010 11:26 AM

Grimwood died in 2003, reportedly while working on a sequel to Replay,

He didn't die. He's in the past, writing Replay again.

Posted by: BierceAmbrose at October 20, 2010 11:28 AM

Thank you Sam. I do feel a little better. Of course, as a perfect example of what I blithered about above, I might feel better if I'd had the courage to post under my usual nom de guerre. I'll add that to the list.

Posted by: Jane Doe at October 20, 2010 1:23 PM