sholio | .... :D!

There is going to be a movie of Winter's Tale out next year! I had no idea. I adored that book when I was a teenager; it was one of my favorite books ever. I haven't read it in many years because of a fear that it had been visited by the Suck Fairy; I last reread it in college and remember being much less enamored than I was as a teen, which made me think that it might not stand up well over the years. But I am absolutely delighted at the idea of a movie.

(I guess this will do away with imagining Matt Bomer as Peter Lake, though. I've thought ever since I started watching White Collar that a Winter's Tale AU with Neal and Kate as Peter and Beverly would be amazing.)

Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3g69QlW2Ts. Although the trailer does give away most of the plot, including the big spec-fic twist in the middle of the book. (Thanks, trailer-making people.) You only need to watch about the first 20-30 seconds to see why I think this would make a perfect Neal Caffrey AU, though. :D

ETA: Just FYI, the discussion in the DW comments is FULL of spoilers for the book, right down to the ending. Also, many thanks to

aqwt101 for pointing out that Matt Bomer, my fantasy-cast for Peter Lake, actually IS in the movie ... playing Peter Lake's father - set pictures here. I find this hilarious and awesome.

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The book has huge flaws and huge virtues, I think. I read it when I was ridiculously young and didn't understand half of it, but it enchanted me. So many beautiful images and passages!

I never would have imagined it as a movie because it's so prose-driven, but it does also have a pretty great story. I'd definitely like to see it.

Yeah, it's the gorgeous imagery that caught my imagination when I was younger. One thing I remember from my somewhat iffy college reread is that I had completely failed to remember huge parts of the book; apparently I'd just skipped over the slow, boring, or WTF parts to focus on the amazing descriptions of frozen lakes and city towers and doomed lovers in big empty houses.

As a movie, I expect it'll probably be a visual feast with a convoluted mess of a plot. Which is probably an apt description of the book too ...

I have only read it cover to cover once (the first time). I have since re-read portions with great enjoyment. It definitely needed an editor - it's kind of a beautiful mess.

The most coherent part is the first third or so, where Peter is educated as a thief, feuds with Pearly Soames, and has his doomed romance with Beverly. I don't think anything that happens after he returns amnesiac from the mostly-dead makes a whole lot of sense, other than him and Pearly Soames chasing each other around the city. He buys a huge white dog and works for a newspaper and there's a huge newspaper feud and he apprentices himself to this guy who's building a magical bridge who tricks Peter into killing him (so he can be resurrected?) and then there's an apocalypse and everyone who's dead is resurrected, but not all on the same plane of existence. I think. Also there is something like five pages devoted to an alcoholic milkshake.

Oh yeah and there was this whole thing about some people attached to the Lake of the Coheeries which I have no idea about, as I am pretty sure that even on my first go-round, I read all the descriptions of the lake and skipped all the stuff the people were doing. There was a guy named Craig? And a little girl named Abbie who dies and is resurrected?

I forgot to mention Athansor, the white horse. Athansor was memorable. But I don't recall how he actually figured into the plot. My recollection is that he periodically galloped into the novel in these gorgeous images and prose passages, then galloped out.

Also, there might have been a magic sword.

I don't think Athansor does anything at all except trot around inspiring lots of gorgeous prose about how beautiful he is and how he may or may not be magical. For me as a horse-crazy 14-year-old, though, all he had to do was stand around looking pretty; that was fine!

Oh, that IS the perfect icon!

Yeah, what I found out the last time I read the book is that about 90% of what I remembered came from the first part of the book -- the Victorian-era stuff. The only other parts that had made an impression on me were the Lake of the Coheeries scenes and the little girl coming back to life ... and the last page, which I still think is wrenching in the right kind of way. (Bet you anything that Pearly dies in the movie version ...)

But younger!me found just about everything in the present day boring and incoherent, with occasional beautiful or cute bits here and there. I'd completely forgotten the newspaper feud 'til you mentioned it, but it's one of the major plot elements, I think!

The last page is gorgeous. I love that Pearly Soames becomes the flaw in the reborn city - it reminds me of the apocryphal deliberate flaw in the Persian carpet (because only God is supposed to create perfection.)

The newspaper feud is immensely skippable. The first part, and the very end, are the great parts.

I adore the ending -- well, at least my teenage self did; I don't know for certain if I'd still react that way, but I still remember the shock and sublime joy of the first time I read it. It's one of those endings that sticks with you forever because it's exactly how things had to end, the only way things could have ended. I still find it hard to believe the movie's not going to muck that up somehow, because having the hero die and the villain win is such a complete antithesis of everything Hollywood normally goes for. On the other hand, it looks like they're sticking with the book pretty closely in most of the major instances, so perhaps they'll at least get the gist of it ...

And yeah, I agree with your assessment completely!

hmmm. never read it, and from the comments, sounds like I book I would have thrown across the room in disgust at the ending. I hate those twist type endings. Thanks for the warnings. The horse sounds cool - and looks cool in the trailer. If there was a way to make a clip movie out of horse bits, I'm there :P

I really loved it, but it's definitely not going to be for everyone!

Despite the way it sounds, it's not really either a twist or a downer ending. It's mythic in a way that makes sense in context of the rest of the book.

Hah, I haven't read the book, but now I feel like I should. Except then I read your conversation with

rachelmanija (I didn't understand a lot of it, so I'm still fairly safe in regards to spoilers), and now I'm not so sure.

I ... don't know.

rachelmanija's description of the book as a beautiful mess is pretty accurate, though it's been 15 years since I last read it so I'm going on old recollections here. I loved it once upon a time, though I think I mostly enjoyed it by focusing on the parts that are great (and some parts are really great!) while ignoring the parts that are boring, incoherent, or seem to belong to some kind of utterly bizarre religious allegory. But parts of it are truly gorgeous and sublime ... I guess it's a matter of taste which impression predominates.

.... :D!

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