Todd Field still working hard on Blood Meridian

Todd trying to fix pieces of the Blood Meridian puzzle.

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Todd Field has sort of lost his sanity with pre production work on the Blood Meridian. This will be a lovely collaboration and Todd Field will be a good fit for Cormac McCarthy’s writing style.

Todd Field is known for his work on films like In the Bedroom and Little Children. Both of these films were landmarks when it comes to form and style. Now Todd Field has signed two films back to back. The first one was Blood Meridian that Ridley Scott washed his hands off. Ridley Scott has said that it is a tricky one. He also added that this one should be left as a novel.

Meridian is a harsh novel to adapt for anyone. It tells the story of a nameless teenage runaway in the American Southwest who falls in with a group of bounty hunting scalp collectors who massacred Indians in the mid 19 th Century. It is a definitive Western Horror sort of novel. It is better left on the page.

Cormac McCarthy’s work explores the brutal faces of violence. There are two faces of this violence one of total annihilation and also a maddening weakness which will not be easily to handle.

So now Todd Field has been hired by Paramount Vantage to direct Blood Meridian. But he was already signed on to make Buried for them. Brad Ingelsby wrote the script for the film. But the status of Buried went out of the door after the crumbling of Paramount Vantage.

Now there are also reports saying that Todd Field will be making another movie in the same lines of a Western epic set in 1910 called The Creed Of Violence. So nothing is really clear at this stage for Blood Meridian. There have also been articles stating that Todd Field has a lot of interest in these kinds of films. He is also an avid reader of Cormac’s books.

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“His novels have long been attractive to film-makers, for the very primal reason that his work examines our core, the two faces of violence that co-exist in every savage act – brutal strength of purpose holding hands with a desperate and cowering weakness. Undoubtedly, the success that ‘No Country for Old Men’ enjoyed, both fiscally and critically, has allowed some people to now see McCarthy’s novels in a different light. In terms of film adaptations, his books have commercial possibilities that heretofore never existed.” Todd Field said.

But I still feel creating the Blood Meridian on screen will be something revelatory. It is surely going to be one of those dire experiences. Todd Field really needs some work so this will also be perfect for him.

John

John has a keen sense of what ticks in the world of film. He can also be seen in three distinct short film titled Woken Shell, The Tea Shop in the Moon and The Waiting. Cinema has been the basic diet he has been on for the last 10 years. His personality can be judged by the choices of his films.

8 Comments

  1. What are Field’s credentials to write and direct this film? As I review his filmography, I see none. IN THE BEDROOM, his only real claim to fame, is like a French boulevard play! BLOOD MERIDIAN requires someone who has real experience in the American arid West, and some experience with “la bete humaine.” Ridley Scott was the perfect choice. Field will desecrate the novel.

  2. I think the Coen bros. could be perfect! I watched the film first and then read the book. No Country is the best example to show their good job.

  3. In the Bedroom and Little Children, both had Oscar nominations and stellar casts. Do some research Dale. And the Coens have enough on their plate. There are other directors.

  4. I have no problem with Field directing Blood Meridian. I think he’s be a fine choice. Sure, Ridley would be perfect, but I don’t agree with his assertion that the film cannot be adapted.

    The only living directors who might be able to pull it off would be: Peter Weir, Coen Bros. and David Fincher.

    The film needs to be beautiful, harsh, ambiguous, mystical and also have that Kubrick touch that will make it timeless.

  5. this novel will be a challenge to adapt in anyone’s hands. the expansiveness and violence make it so. little children is an excellent film and great credentials for todd field, but i’m still not sure he can do it. i would really have like to recommend or even repost this article, but i so utterly disagree with this ‘desperate and cowering weakness’ john refers to that i can’t. manifest destiny entitled the glanton gang to murder man, woman and child. so many of them were helpless and even they looked down the barrel of the gun. btw kubrick is a hack who shouldn’t be allowed near another book. look what he did to a clockwork orange.

  6. @Pinkyandthebrain: Kubrick, first of all, has been dead for over ten years. So way to stay current. Second, he was brilliant, one of the best filmmakers of all time. Get your head out of your ass.

    And Oliver Stone could do Blood Meridian. Coen brothers can do anything, they are masters. They already have done McCarthy though, and just did a Western with True Grit. Fincher would be interesting, but I don’t think it’s his genre. Ridley Scott would miss the nuance. Chris Nolan could probably do a great job too.

    • Oliver Stone will stand the tests of the material. Coen Brothers would make it to a certain point but would the dark essence of the story. Though they have tackled McCarthy it was just by the book. There needs to be a new kind of resolution to work on this material. Chris Nolan watches too many Michael Bay and works his way to make smarter movies than that. The material would be the Death of him. Todd Field would have been the perfect choice for this, but he has left it for the time being. It will take another brave director like P.T Anderson to take the plunge into this harrowing material.

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