Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen

Description

Cormac McCarthy is renowned as the author of popular and acclaimed novels such as Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, and The Road. Throughout his career, however, McCarthy has also invested deeply in writing for film and theater, an engagement with other forms of storytelling that is often overlooked. He is the author of five screenplays and two plays, and he has been significantly involved with three of the seven film adaptations of his work. In this book, Stacey Peebles offers the first extensive overview of this relatively unknown aspect of McCarthy’s writing life, including the ways in which other artists have interpreted his work for the stage and screen. Drawing on many primary sources in McCarthy’s recently opened archive, as well as interviews, Peebles covers the 1977 televised film The Gardener’s Son; McCarthy’s unpublished screenplays from the 1980s that became the foundation for his Border Trilogy novels and No Country for Old Men; various successful and unsuccessful productions of his two plays; and all seven film adaptations of his work, including John Hillcoat’s The Road (2009) and the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men (2007). Emerging from this narrative is the central importance of tragedy—the rich and varied portrayals of violence and suffering and the human responses to them—in all of McCarthy’s work, but especially his writing for theater and film. Acknowledgments......Page 8 Introduction. Cormac McCarthy, Center Stage......Page 12 1. First Forays: Early Film Interest and The Gardener’ s Son......Page 26 2. The Unproduced Screenplays: “Cities of the Plain,” “Whales and Men,” and “No Country for Old Men”......Page 52 3. Works for Theater: The Stonemason and The Sunset Limited......Page 80 4. Keeping the Faith: All the Pretty Horses and The Road......Page 104 5. Tragic Success Stories: No Country for Old Men and The Sunset Limited......Page 144 6. Great Expectations: The Counselor and Child of God......Page 174 201. Bears That Dance, Bears That Don’t: The Attempts to Adapt Blood Meridian......Page 212 Notes......Page 224 Bibliography......Page 232 Index......Page 248