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Tom Wolfe’s 2004 college expose I Am Charlotte Simmons turned out to be thick in more ways than one. Despite well-publicized research and one of the sharpest eyes for social satire in the genre's history, the 676-page tome was angrily dismissed by critics and by many in college circles as shrill, obvious nonsense.
Tina Brown (above), the celebrity former editor of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair
and the doomed Talk magazine, must have known as much. And yet the former
media magnet has started to develop the book into a new hour-long series
for HBO, the first project of the new production deal she wrangled with
the network late last year, and she’s made no mention of the novel’s
disastrous reception.
“I have always wanted to see Charlotte brought to the screen in all her innocent vitality,” Brown said of the book, which follows the title character, a gifted student who comes from a poor town, through her hazardous first year at the fictional elite college Dupont. The series appears to have effectively derailed the planned film adaptation, which was to be directed by Liz Friedlander (Take the Lead).
Brown’s instincts can notoriously go both ways, but she could be onto something from a producer’s prospective. The novel—dense with subplots involving governmental scandal, illicit sex, legacy privilege and the politics of university athletics—has no shortage of twisty material to mine, and with the right creative eye, the series could prove a fascination for the college-aged as well as their weary parents.
Details are thin, with Brown and producing partner Bill Haber (The Fantasia Barrino Story) currently looking for a writer to helm a pilot. If the show’s development makes the customary progress, it will likely be ready to air within the next couple of years.
Related links:
News: Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Simmons heading to the big screen
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“I have always wanted to see Charlotte brought to the screen in all her innocent vitality,” Brown said of the book, which follows the title character, a gifted student who comes from a poor town, through her hazardous first year at the fictional elite college Dupont. The series appears to have effectively derailed the planned film adaptation, which was to be directed by Liz Friedlander (Take the Lead).
Brown’s instincts can notoriously go both ways, but she could be onto something from a producer’s prospective. The novel—dense with subplots involving governmental scandal, illicit sex, legacy privilege and the politics of university athletics—has no shortage of twisty material to mine, and with the right creative eye, the series could prove a fascination for the college-aged as well as their weary parents.
Details are thin, with Brown and producing partner Bill Haber (The Fantasia Barrino Story) currently looking for a writer to helm a pilot. If the show’s development makes the customary progress, it will likely be ready to air within the next couple of years.
Related links:
News: Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Simmons heading to the big screen
Feature: The Return of the Tangerine-Flake Electric-Kool-Aid Pump-House Bonfire Madmen with the Right Stuff, Baby
News: Despite rocky start, HBO picks up True Blood for season two
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