Dear List,
 
Stanley Kubrick stated that if Lolita had been written by a lesser author, it could have resulted in a better movie.  Despite all the modern cinematic resources, words would to be turned into actions or dialogues, verbal sceneries would be interpreted as images....
Would I shock Nabokovians if I suggested that "Ada" could be rendered as a sophisticated interactive game ( like those for "Play-Station II" ) with options to view the same scene from below, from above or upsidedown, or for changing time/space dimensions,  for catching virtual butterflies or biting marygolds, solving verbal problems, hearing music or dying several times and interacting with ghosts in the bubbles of a hypertext?
Jansy
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 11:43 PM
Subject: Fwd: Re: Robert Evans and ADA film project (circa 1969)

> Swifty Lazar, Nabokov's Hollywood agent -- or at least I think that's what he
> was -- told that story some years ago on Bob Costas' old TV show "Later." I
> think he and Evans were there together. Lazar's impression was the same,
> though, that it was a "book for intellectuals" that he couldn't imagine seeing
> as a movie.
>
> What does everyone else think?
>
> My idea of a model adaptation of a literary novel with an unusual structure is
> Philip Kaufman's film of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Do you think it's
> possible to put "Ada" or "Pale Fire" on film in a way that would satisfy not so
> much a mass audience but, say, a reasonably intelligent filmgoer who had not
> read the book? That's the true test.
>
> Rodney Welch
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> Sent: Mar 15, 2005 1:37 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Robert Evans and ADA film project (circa 1969)
>
> One thing I have never seen mentioned on this email group is the
> discussion of 'Ada' in Robert Evan's autobiography "The Kid Stays In
> The Picture".  According to the legendary producer, he flew overnight
> to Europe to read the final draft of 'Ada', with a view to purchasing
> the film rights.  I seem to remember he claims to have read it all in
> one night and reluctantly passed on the opportunity to buy it as "it
> might have been a work of genius" but "I sure as hell couldn't
> understand it".  He notes with pride that "to this day, they still
> can't figure out how to shoot the damn thing!".
>
> Heh.  Anyway, I read The Kid Stays In The Picture a couple of years
> ago, so that's probably a highly inaccurate recollection....  a highly
> recommended autobiography though, especially as the people on this
> list are probably fans of "unreliable narrators"..... ;-)
>
> http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0263172/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9b258ZmI9dXxwbj0wfHE9cm9iZXJ0IGV2YW5zfGh0bWw9MXxubT1vbg__;fc=2;ft=20;fm=1
>
> Andy
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
>