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Woof. We can sit here and make fun of Hollywood’s terrible ideas all day, and we do. It’s like they’re a Disaster Factory with retarded foremen manning the money burning furnaces, and an extraordinarily high incident of on-site injuries (brain injuries)! But most of the time Hollywood’s failure to come up with anything worth watching is almost charming. “We’re going to remake Romancing the Stone, but this time Michael Douglas’s character will be played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and his love interest will be a branded-tie-in can of Mountain Dew Code Red.” Lots Of Love. But news is coming out about an adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell’s pseudo-intellectual self-help book about intuitive decision making, Blink, and oh jeez. It’s being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and the script is being written by Stephen Gaghan, and we’re gonna need a bigger YIKES. From the Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz blog:
Risky Biz has learned that Al Pacino is in talks to star as one of the leads, with a number of younger actors – you’d be surprised at the tween appeal of some on the list — circling the other lead part
Gaghan’s script will center on the relationship between an older man (Pacino) and the twentysomething son he was never close to. The two reconnect early on in the pic, and the boy, an idealistic drifter who’s teaching in a downtown New York school, and the father, a finance type living in Connecticut, must navigate their new relationship.
Oh yes, the book. Well, the son has that Blink thing going — he can size up people and situations on a dime. The Pacino character spots this, and both wants to help the boy find himself and use him to make some dough on Wall Street. It’s “Scent of a Woman” with a finance-y twist — colorful, self-involved older guy mentoring younger ingenue for reasons both selfless and selfish.
Did you know that the Eskimos have over 50 different ways to say “terrible.” Seriously, you need a whole new language to talk about how bad this sounds. It sounds awful on its own, like Jungle 2 Jungle meets Finding Forrester meets the Boiler Room meets Devil’s Advocate, but then you work tirelessly to tie in a non-fiction book about pop psychology for no good reason other than it seems like maybe you can market it to the Upper West Side, and we’re looking (unblinkingly) at a monster train wreck. “The son has that Blink thing going.” What? Drop dead. Let’s all drop dead. I’m going to take the book’s advice and follow my immediate, unfiltered, gut reaction, and say that this is already the worst. I can’t wait for Gladwell’s next bestseller: The Sorry Point: How I Am Sorry.
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I think it sounds okay. I like Gladwell’s books.
Man, I can’t wait to blink and miss this.
I don’t know that it’s terribly fair to judge a movie by a poorly written plot summary.
You must be new to the site
that’s cold, TC.
But to be (terribly) fair, how could one rewrite this plot summary? I mean really, just the facts: Blink, Al Pachino, tween appeal. I defy anyone to add something to that list that could possibly add to its perfect worst-ness!
If you’re still looking for the perfect GIF, as your name indicates, you apparently missed last week’s Real Housewives Of New York Finale Recap. PERFECTION IS AT YOUR DOORSTEP (in the form of Simon dancing).
how’s that videogum account coming along?
and malcolm gladwell looks like a monchichi:
Right. A movie about making instant judgments should not be so hastily judged.
But, you see, it turns out, alarmingly — upending our preconceived notions about how we cannot see the future — that humans are actually great predictors of exactly how terrible movies will be.
I see what you did there.
I’m holding out for the big screen adaptation of The World is Flat starring Kevin James and Ashton Kutcher.
The Secret starring Mandy Moore and Katherine Heigel.
I don’t think Gladwell thought this out.
Isn’t there a movie like this coming out this summer with Eddie Murphy using his daughter’s imaginary friends to help him make stock deals? This sounds like the PG-13 version.
I just read Gladwell’s book on success. I refuse to believe he is a part of this project. If so, I want my 20 dollars back.
I was never on “Growing Pains” so maybe I don’t know anything, but is the brand recognition you get from using the name of a well-known book really worth shoe-horning the book’s theme into an unrelated plot? Like, does it work to do this?
The Sorry Point: How I Am Sorry.
Love it!
Gladwell is the worst.
I puked, then dropped the 400-level English class that listed The Tipping Point on its syllabus.
I can’t wait to see how they work in the NY police shooting of Amadou Diallo into the plot.
…tween superstar Nick Cannon in talks to play Diallo, an “african immigrant type” living in New York. The NYPD officers did not, as it turns out, have that whole “blink” thing going.
Gladwell’s books are like >blink< versions of most lib arts/humanities college degrees (including mine), devoid of anything actually useful but great for making you feel* like you know something.
*b/c you never actually learn how to think.
I predict something like Crash where people make snap decisions based on race. Half the book was about how people also make incorrect decisions quickly… I assume that will be the son’s downfall.
Man, and I was just giving him a second chance for his debate with Bill Simmons today on ESPN.com. Oh, fuck. Wait. No one here likes sports. Fuck… I’ll be outside.
I’ve only ever read two books in my life – Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and The Road by Cormac McCarthy so I am thrilled that they have now both gotten shout-outs on Videogum. Now promise never to mention any other books here again. I have no intention of reading another one just to keep up.
“…work tirelessly to tie in a non-fiction book about pop psychology for no good reason other than it seems like maybe you can market it…” –and that’s how they made Mean Girls. just sayin’.