Dear Holly Bario, you smart executive who wisely gave the greenlight to Eleanor & Park…
Sometimes I get mad at the concept of word of mouth. It seems like such an egalitarian but inefficient system. Like, why do I have to wait that long to find things out that might be awesome, that might have been improving my life all this time?
This is how I feel about Rainbow Rowell’s books, and Eleanor & Park in particular. I love them so much that, even though I’ve crammed them into my face repeatedly since first learning about them, I still feel a sense of loss for not having them the minute they were available to the world. You know? (Lainey: allow me to smugly return the Veronica Mars favour to Duana because I was the one who made her read Eleanor & Park!)
They’re also the kind of books you almost don’t want to talk about for fear that the joy of them is going to leak out and leave you, like a balloon with a leak. If you like books at all, particularly about people, please rush and read Eleanor & Park. But don’t rush through the actual book. Savour that.
No, this is for you diehard fans already. The book is going to be made into a movie. Rowell is writing the screenplay. Details here. And I just…I want this to be what we all want it to be. I want not to know Eleanor or Park until we meet them onscreen. Total anonymity.
And I just want this movie not to get messed with. It’s a tall order but it also does happen. You can think of movies that come out exactly the way they’re supposed to, but they’re usually Wes Anderson’s.
If we have to talk about this we have to get real. It’s about physicality. I hope it’s fairly easy to find a half-Korean Park. Some actor who’s just beginning, for whom this will be an incredible role. But for Eleanor – please, please, for Eleanor…
Don’t fudge it. Don’t make her similar but different. Don’t say that it was important to have the inside of Eleanor more than it was the way she looks. Usually that’s true. It should be true – but this time, y’know?
We’re all a bit in excited disbelief. Let us stay there. I promise we will buy movie tickets in return.
Please, please, and thank you,
Xo Duana and everyone.
