Blindness

May I confide in you? OK, thanks.

Ever since I read "Blindness" by Jose Saramago, I've wanted to make it into a film. Well, maybe not immediately after I read it, but for quite some time now I've wanted to do that, and it remains to this date the only book I've ever read that I've wanted to make into a film. So, you can understand my being a bit upset being informed that it is now being made into a film to be released in less than a year.

Here's the part I'm worried about: The main aspect of the book is that almost all of the main characters for the majority of the book are blind. They can't see anything but a milky whiteness. So my approach to the film was that it would consist of a great deal of WHITE SCREEN, with the sound design describing the scene to the audience rather than images. It certainly wouldn't be an hour or something of white, but minutes upon minutes at least. So my main concern is that this, the crux of MY version, will be lost. Also, of course, since I loved the book, there is the fear that, in general, it will be ruined, either in the truncating process or the performances, the use of recognizable actors, etc.

However, there is one saving grace, upon which I rest all of my hopes: it is directed by Fernando Meirelles, who is the director of "City of God" and "The Constant Gardener."

Please, oh please, let this be a good movie. Julianne Moore, I'm talking to you. Don't fuck this up.

Thanks for listening.