Walking The Road with Viggo

By Will Reynolds / June 25, 2011

Exactly a week ago Matt gave you heads up on The Road, a post-apocalyptic drama based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Now confirmation comes from The Hollywood Reporter that the movie is going ahead under the stewardship of 2929 Productions with Dimension Films picking the movie up for North American distribution.

The trade gives this quick summation of the plot:-

The film, based on McCarthy's 2006 best-seller, centers on a father who walks alone with his son through a ravaged postwar American landscape in search of civilization.

Viggo Mortensen is attached to the film, though currently he doesn't have a deal finalised, while The Proposition's John Hillcoat will handle directing chores. The script comes from acclaimed playwright Joe Penhall. I read this book right at the start of the year and it completely blew me away - so much so, in fact, that everything I've read since has been mediocre in comparison. The story is such a simple idea but its brilliance lies in McCarthy's genius as a writer. I fear the film will only be a shadow of the book, but the good buzz from No Country For Old Men shows that it is possible to do McCarthy's prose justice on the big screen.