The Sound and the G-dd---ed F---ing Fury

December 1, 2011 6:14 PM

David Milch, creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, has inked a deal with HBO to produce television shows and movies from the literary works of William Faulkner.

“I’m not, probably, the first person they would have thought of approaching them,” Mr. Milch said in a phone interview, referring to his months-long discussions with the William Faulkner Literary Estate. “But a number of conversations were fruitful and here we are.”

Faulkner previously; Milch previously
posted by not_the_water (32 comments total)

I have never been hopeful about hoping I am wrong about something never being possible.

Now, if you don't mind, I have a clock to wind.
posted by victors at 6:17 PM on December 1, 2011

I hope he starts with Sanctuary.
posted by Trurl at 6:17 PM on December 1, 2011

Is anyone else who still feels burned by the non-endings of Deadwood and John From Cinicinatti wondering how he'll ever manage to actually finish anything by Faulkner? Will it help that the conclusions are already written? I guess we can hope so.
posted by trackofalljades at 6:18 PM on December 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

The fucking past isn't dead. Hell, that cocksucker ain't even past.
posted by shothotbot at 6:22 PM on December 1, 2011 [8 favorites]

I would normally be very pessimistic..but he just might pull it off.
posted by incandissonance at 6:23 PM on December 1, 2011

As long as the output is more Deadwood and less John from Yoknapatawpha County, I can't wait to see the fruits of this deal.
posted by Falconetti at 6:28 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

So what role is Dennis Franz going to play?
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:34 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm gonna make this as a bumper sticker some day.:
Melville makes Faulkner look like Grisham!
posted by isopraxis at 6:35 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yay! Long have I pined to see Flem Snopes naked!
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:37 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well tarnation.
posted by vrakatar at 6:38 PM on December 1, 2011

God, I hope he doesn't just add some swears in there. I thought Deadwood definitely had its good moments, but the pretentious monologues really got to me, and John from Cincinnati made it pretty clear exactly how much Deadwood was able to lean on an exceptional cast when the writing wasn't up to snuff.
posted by whir at 6:54 PM on December 1, 2011

Crossing my fingers that (a) they do A Rose for Emily, and (b) they don't screw up A Rose for Emily.
posted by Gator at 7:03 PM on December 1, 2011

My motherfucker was a fish.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:03 PM on December 1, 2011 [6 favorites]

I am probably the only person that liked John from Cincinnati.
posted by birdherder at 7:09 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

No, I really liked it too, birdherder.
posted by basicchannel at 7:23 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

I did too but I'm a sucker for lost causes.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:49 PM on December 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

Light in August is my favorite Faulker, and would make a great film.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:50 PM on December 1, 2011

The Sound and the G-dd---ed F---ing Fury

I'd favorite this post just for the title. Well played.
posted by Ber at 8:01 PM on December 1, 2011

Oh man, I can see the scenes from As I Lay Dying so vividly right now: the coffin, the mud, the rain, the epicness...

Is anyone else who still feels burned by the non-endings of Deadwood and John From Cinicinatti wondering how he'll ever manage to actually finish anything by Faulkner?

That's more than a bit unfair; if I recall correctly, those non-endings were in large part due to HBO's failure to commit to continuing the two shows.
posted by mediareport at 8:02 PM on December 1, 2011

Oh, and John From Cincinnati was an amazingly challenging and beautiful show; that so-called cultural critics at places like The New Yorker shot it down right out of the gate was so fucking pathetic it can still make me sob with grief.
posted by mediareport at 8:04 PM on December 1, 2011

Is anyone else who still feels burned by the non-endings of Deadwood and John From Cinicinatti wondering how he'll ever manage to actually finish anything by Faulkner? Will it help that the conclusions are already written?

You do realize the shows were cancelled out from under him, right? It's not like he wasn't planning on ending them.

Deadwood was able to lean on an exceptional cast when the writing wasn't up to snuff.

That's crazy talk. There has never been a better-written tv show than Deadwood. The writing was ALWAYS up to snuff.

And I, too, loved JFC.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 8:17 PM on December 1, 2011

It all depends on who gets cast as Sutpen, one of my favorite villains/anti-heroes/anti-villains/complicated human beings in fiction. Plus, Absalom would be a really good name for an HBO drama.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:49 PM on December 1, 2011

Amen "Sanctuary." Who will play Temple Drake? One of the finer names in fiction, btw.
posted by rainbaby at 8:52 PM on December 1, 2011

There has never been a better-written tv show than Deadwood. The writing was ALWAYS up to snuff.

I dunno, it always seemed to me that they brought in Tolliver to nicen up Swearengen by contrast, and then ended up giving poor ol' Powers Booth the short end. Maybe there were to be payoffs down the road, but things often felt pretty slapdash to me even before the cancellation looked likely.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:58 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

the epicness...

The chuck chuck chuck of the adze ...
posted by kneecapped at 10:50 PM on December 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

1) There has never been a better-written TV show than the first 2 seasons of Deadwood. Season 3....had its problems.

2) My favorite Faulkner is The Sound and The Fury. I don't want to see it televised because what makes it my favorite Faulkner is the unreliable narrations. Just by televising the thing you make what is seen on screen the definitive narration.

3) I got nothing.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:22 AM on December 2, 2011

I'm skeptical. But I suppose the Snopes trilogy might make good TV. The trouble with all of them is that they're actually pretty lurid. I love almost all of Faulkner, but in the big books it's the writing that saves them from being just too melodramatic (except for AS I Lay Dying, which is reasonably spare in the melodrama department, although if one can say that about AILD then I think it highlights the problems with some of the other books).
posted by OmieWise at 5:26 AM on December 2, 2011

Also popping in for some JFC love.
posted by X-Himy at 6:41 AM on December 2, 2011

Tolliver showed up in the third episode of the show. Certainly he was brought in as an antagonist for Swearingen, but I don't think Milch created Tolliver in order to soften up Swearingen.
posted by nushustu at 8:01 AM on December 2, 2011

Most excellent. Beyond the narrative experiments that one is often required to read in high school or college, are, in my opinion, the better works by Faulkner. I can see how Milch could sell Faulkner to HBO, sex, race, and violence, hurrah!
posted by Atreides at 9:51 AM on December 2, 2011

I think Tolliver was there for exactly that, to make Al an anti-hero rather than a straight blackguard. His presence allowed for more tones than black and white.
posted by bonehead at 11:25 AM on December 2, 2011

I'm wondering who will play Quentin Compson. And also who will play Quentin Compson.
posted by slogger at 2:08 PM on December 2, 2011