F. Scott Fitzgerald Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Just when it seemed like Keira Knightley might take a break from period pieces, she signs up for one more. The young gal just can't get enough of them, and at least this time around it isn't a costumed drama full of big hair and big dresses. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Nick Cassavetes has signed on to direct The Beautiful and the Damned, with Knightley in talks for the lead.

Written by Hanna Weg, the film focuses on the love story between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre, which means that Keira would play the doomed lover. So this time around, the corsets will be turned in for flapper dresses. In a time before the proliferation of gossip rags and celebrities, the couple were icons of the roaring twenties. The romance of the union, however, was short-lived, and as their marriage began to fail, both used the material for their own novels. Zelda grew increasingly unstable, was admitted to a sanatorium, and diagnosed with schizophrenia. It's not the most uplifting story.

Now I'd love to see more Fitzgerald on the big screen, and their lives should provide a lot of material for a film. However ... 1. Could we PLEASE have a based-on-truth story that is not focused on romance? Amelia, now Zelda. These people were more than just romantic figures. 2. Keira does a decent job with these sort of roles, but Zelda was not a waif. I hope, at the very least, she tries to get that cherubic flapper look for the role. Otherwise, it's just all wrong and maybe Coco should've gotten it.

The cover for the spiffy new movie edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reads: "the inspiration for the upcoming major motion picture." Anyone who reads the famous 1922 short story, about a man who is mysteriously born a septuagenarian and begins to age backwards, will immediately realize that it can't be any more than that. My copy is about fifty small, large-print pages, and it takes no more than twenty minutes to read. There are only about four characters of any note, and each of their relationships is bitter and hollow; the whole thing is a quick, moody burst of melancholy, a high concept on which Fitzgerald had no interest in lingering.

The anxiously awaited movie is directed by David Fincher – his follow-up to Zodiac -- and written by Eric Roth (the IMDb doesn't list a credit for Fitzgerald), whose resume includes Forrest Gump, The Insider, and Munich. Compared to the source material, the film has virtually a cast of thousands. Benjamin's love interest is renamed Daisy – the story's "Hildegarde" just doesn't have the same ring to it – and is played by Cate Blanchett. "Daisy age 6" is played by Elle Fanning (a.k.a. Little Dakota), though it's hard to imagine what use the film will have for a Daisy age 6: do she and Benjamin now meet while the latter is an "old man" and she a toddler? President Theodore Roosevelt shows up, for some reason. And, at least according to this Ain't It Cool test screening review, the current incarnation of the movie clocks in at three hours.