Going Back to its Roots

Whether it be book to screen, screen to book, video game to screen, stage to screen or album to stage transitions between mediums nearly always seem to fall short. The number of failures is seemingly endless whilst the number of actual successes is so short it really does beg the question, at least from a business point of view, is it worth doing in the first place?

History is littered with failures. For every To Kill a Mocking Bird there are hundreds of English Patients.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Glengarry Glen Ross at a local theatre and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not. I'm sorry, I'll rewind for those not familiar with the play. Glengarry Glen Ross is a play by David Mamet. The story is based around a group of real estate salesmen in Chicago vie for the best "leads" at a small firm selling property in "resort" areas, such as Florida and Arizona. The story is not really too important, what is important is that the play was made into a film in the early 90's and that film, that piece of platinum plated celluloid is my favourite film of all time.

And herein lies the problem or paradox if you will. My favourite film is in fact a transition piece, going successfully from stage to screen. But will it go into reverse? By that I mean can it hold it's own going back to it's roots with smaller actors (the film has Pacino, Spacey, Lemmon, Alda, Baldwin, Pryce) and only the words to hold it up.

I'm not sure. The reviews for the play from friends and the press have been great, but I'm still nervous. One thing in the plays favour, it doesn't have Rebecca Pigeon in it.