All of this seems so terribly ill-advised. The book is great—not Faulkner’s greatest, but it has a linear trajectory that I do think is filmable—but this trailer seems to portray a pale imitation of someone else’s vision of what a Faulkner film might look like (no, I don’t know what that sentence means exactly, other than this film looks like a bad riff on Faulkner).
The Trailer for James Franco’s Film Adaptation of As I Lay Dying Is Pretty Unremarkable
Biblioklept 
Looks like a student film.
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Yeah, it does.
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I can only imagine how he’s going to massacre Child of God. Thank god he’s no longer adapting Blood Meridian.
What would you say is Faulkner’s best?
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There’s a lot of Faulkner I haven’t read, so I don’t know if I could say what his best is, but my favorite is Go Down, Moses. The story in there The Bear is unreal. I also think Light in August is better than The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!, but those are also great. I’ve had The Reivers in my “to read” stack forever.
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He’s off Blood Meridian? That’s a relief. Although if a film of the book for some reason needs to exist I believe his homeboy Harmony Korine would be good to direct. Consider it, gentlemen.
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Korine could be an interesting choice—I imagine he’d take it far enough from the source material but also tap into its spirit, which is what a film adaptation should do (the Faulkner clip above just seems overly-reverential to me). I still don’t think it’s a good idea to film Blood Meridian though.
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WOW.
Who thought this was a good idea? I am in shock.
Tim Blake Nelson, you disappoint me.
(Light in August may be my favorite Faulkner. Not necessarily his best, but…there’s something about it…)
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i see this as faulkner’s most “gimmicky” book, easy to teach in a class as representative in a misleading sort of way. i agree that there is just something about Light in August, its my favorite as well.
To the movie, I will admit that James Franco is a guilty pleasure of mine and I’ll give this one a chance. Although, maybe I just want to be a contrarian on this comment thread.
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Who would’ve thought that Faulkner and Kenny Powers would have even less than 6 degrees of separation between them?
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I’m surprised that my fanfic story has come to life.
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This may interest/depress you: http://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/9780804170413_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg?w=260&h=402
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I just wrote a post on As I Lay Dying. Like, today. Neat-o.
The best I can say for this is that it at least seems to be well-casted. …right?
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[…] The Trailer for James Franco’s Film Adaptation of As I Lay Dying Is Pretty Unremarkable (biblioklept.org) […]
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[…] James Franco’s taken a stab at Faulkner and one of Faulkner’s literary descendants, Cormac McCarthy—in the same year no less. […]
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I came here from a future blog. Now I remember this trailer. It seems as if everyone has a chaw in their mouth and all the other things that Hollywood relies on to denote the South. Also, the characters seem stereotyped rather than real. Faulkner, what little I have read of him, impresses me as someone who created authentic characters to people his books.
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