Today Is My Christmas

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That's what I have decided. Not only did I get a new Radiohead song today, but now I see there's news - as well as a 19-page excerpt online - of a new Michael Cunningham book on the horizon. In case you're unawares, Cunningham, the author of Flesh & Blood, A Home at the End of the World, The Hours, Specimen Days and the screenplay for "the movie where Hugh Dancy kissed Patrick Wilson, blessed-be" Evening, is my favorite living author. Love him. There's a chat with him over at EW and I'm just gonna excerpt a bunch.

Cunningham: ... I’m about two-thirds of the way through a new novel. I’m juggling that with the final drafts of two screenplays, a little thriller for Screen Gems called Beautiful Girl and the Dusty Springfield movie with Nicole Kidman. The Dusty Springfield film, as they say in Hollywood, just went into turnaround at Fox 2000, which is probably best all around. I like all the people at Fox 2000, but it’s probably not the right studio for this film. So now it’s just Nicole and me and Dusty. And we’ll try to find another home for it.

EW: Beautiful Girl is a thriller about a high school English teacher who exacts revenge on everyone who was cruel to one of his students. Let’s just say it does not sound like you at all.

Cunningham: Actually, I’ve always been a huge fan of horror films. I’ve seen all the horror movies. I have no limits when it comes to that. I’ve seen all the Saw movies. Do you know the writer Amy Hempel? She and I will go to any hack-’em-up movie, the gorier the better. So the genre has always appealed to me. Now, I should say that I have the highest respect for those who teach English literature, particularly in high school. But this individual is just a psycho. [he chuckles]

EW: You’ve always been a slow and steady writer, churning out a novel every five years or so. Does that mean we should be seeing another one soon?

Cunningham: “Slow and steady” is the right phrase to describe me. I’m closing it on my new novel. I could easily be finished by late September. It’s called Olympia."

There's more at the link - including a somewhat spoilery description of what the story's about - so click on over if you care to.

I'd posted about Cunningham's working on that horror film script before right here - I mean... a man after my fucking heart, this one. I haven't even seen all of the Saw films! Sheesh. Don't know if I knew about the Dusty Springfield thing; I'm not surprised Nic wants to work with him since he's the fellow who brought her her Oscar on a silver platter... but well, isn't Nicole a little old for Dusty at this point?


I guess it depends on what part of her life they wanna tell. Nicole's about ten to fifteen years older than Dusty was when she was at her most successful in the Sixties... (and thanks to all that work Nicole "hasn't" had she looks even older). Aaaanyway. Uh. Love you, Michael!
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