Categories: Beatdom Updates

Burroughs on Filming The Great Gatsby

John Tytell: They are making a movie of The Great Gatsby.

William S. Burroughs: I’m sure it will be a real mess.

JT: But not at the box office.

WSB: I’m not even sure of that. Generally speaking they know what they’re doing, but they don’t always. They will go all out on these spectaculars that don’t work at all. I was just looking the book over myself with an idea of making a film, and there just is no film there — everything’s in the prose. You take that away and you’ve got wooden dialogue and creaky action… It isn’t cinematic.

William S. Burroughs talking about filming The Great Gatsby in 1974.

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the founder and editor of Beatdom literary journal and the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the Weird Cult, World Citizen: Allen Ginsberg as Traveller, and High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism.

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