9 JG Ballard Stories That Must Be Filmed

Celebrating the life of Britain's late, great author

Apr 20th 2009 By Sam Ashurst

Mr F Is Mr F (1961)

The Star: George Clooney

The Director: Stephen Soderbergh

The Pitch: If you found Benjamin Button more saccharine than a bag full of Cola Cubes floating in a vat of lemonade, then you should join us in our campaign to get Ballard’s dark take on reverse aging onto your local big screen immediately.

Our hero, Charles Freeman, doesn’t find love when he discovers he’s aging backwards; not only does he already have a wife, she’s not exactly a benevolent presence.

In fact, she takes him prisoner when he reveals his condition to her, and he quickly discovers she has a very good reason for wanting to keep him close.

The twisted central relationship and dark sexual themes would keep Soderbergh interested, and Clooney could bring in the crowds.

It might not win any Oscars, but the cult circuit would love it. And if Soderbergh passes, Cronenberg could direct this thing with his eye-balls grafted to his palms and his fists closed.

Comments

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- alowe
  
  Apr 20th 2009, 13:12
  
  Cocaine Nights, too, please. First shot: tennis machine pumping out balls. Pull back slowly to reveal a player in tennis whites, lying dead on the floor in a growing pool of tennis balls.
  
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- MadMatt
  
  Apr 20th 2009, 18:28
  
  Natali has been struggling to get High-Rise made for years - probably because he wants to make it as bleak and darkly brilliant as you suggest. He's a perfect fit and seriously underrated, so I hope that one at least makes it to the screen.
  
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- chris999
  
  Apr 25th 2009, 0:00
  
  By the way, it's Heavenly Creatures - not Heavenly Girls.
  
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- chris999
  
  Apr 25th 2009, 0:00
  
  By the way, it's Heavenly Creatures - not Heavenly Girls.
  
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- jargonking
  
  Apr 26th 2009, 18:38
  
  You're forgetting Hello America, possibly the most cinematic of all his novels featuring a European expedition to explore an America abandoned by it's population more than a century earlier. The opening scene of the ship arriving in an empty New York is phenomenal.
  
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