Cinematical

Okay, for this story I need you to try to remember something that happened, like, two years ago. Can you do that for me? Can you take your brain back that far, or do we need to call in McFly and the Doc? Anyway, remember all the hoopla surrounding James Frey's very popular book A Million Little Pieces? How Oprah used the so-called "memoir" to re-launch her book club, and how it turned into this huge success -- so much so that Warner Bros. desperately wanted to make a film out of it -- and how it later came out that Frey made up a good portion of the book ... and then Oprah smacked him around on TV ... and then the film went bye bye. Remember?

Well, that's what happened -- and now, two years after the fact, comes a film called A Million Little Pieces, based on the book by James Frey and directed by Nigel Tomm. And no, it's not being developed -- it's actually done ... in the can ... and available on DVD. Who's in it, you ask? Well, unlike the previous in-development adaptation, you're not going to see stars like Jake Gyllenhaal, Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett or Ryan Gosling (all of whom were interested in starring in the other flick). Nope, this one, according to its tagline, is -- wait for it -- "70 minutes and 41 seconds of pure turquoise screen. Nothing more, nothing less." On a budget of $345. Ahem. Confused?

Keep reading ...


See, Nigel Tomm is an artist who likes to adapt literary properties in his own unique way -- by calling each a "remix" and adding one solid color that remains on screen for roughly 70 minutes or so. No sound, no dialogue, no narration, nothing. Previously, Tomm's done the same thing for Hamlet, The Catcher in the Rye and Waiting for Godot, among others. Here's a bit more description: "Nigel Tomm's film adaptation of James Frey's book "A Million Little Pieces" is the transfer of the story to the space of art. Somebody calls it absolute art. Somebody calls it abstract film. Somebody calls it fraud. To have your own opinion you must trust your eyes and experience for yourself the seductive turquoise screen."

And you can buy a piece of A Million Little Pieces for only $19.97 on Amazon. Personally, I think I'll pass on the twenty-dollar turquoise screen ... but for those who really wanted to see Frey's book turned into a movie, it seems like this is as good as it's gonna get.

[Special thanks to Cinematical reader John for pointing this out to us]