It’s National Geographic Adventure‘s turn to take a look at the new Sean Penn film Into The Wild based on the classic book of the same name by Jon Krakauer. There has been a steady stream of publicity for the film in the outdoor and adventure magazines of late, and this is just the latest look at the film.
Adventure interviews Penn himself about why he wanted to make this film, and covers the long process of bringing the story of Chris McCandless to the big screen. A process that has taken 11 years, and has seen a number of incarnations.
The article notes that Krakauer and McCandless’ family decided that they would not share the rights to the story with any filmmaker unless all of them agreed it was the right person for the job. Obviously they all felt that Penn was the right man.
Into the Wild tells Chris’ story as a wanderer who hitchhiked across the country, after giving up his money and most of his other material possession. Along the way, he met a number of unique and interesting characters who had an impact on his life.
Eventually, the young man made his way to Alaska, where he intended to wander “into the wild” to live of the land and become more in touch with the World. He ended up dying, alone, in the wilderness. Later, his body was discovered, along with a diary that he kept, which formed the basis of Krakauer’s book.
The film is set to be released tomorrow, Sept. 21st, but it seems to be in a very limited release. I do not see it scheduled to come to my city (Austin, TX) at the moment. I was hoping to get a chance to see the film soon, and post my thoughts on it, but I guess I’ll just have to be patient.
I will say that the IMDB post for the movie has about 230 votes right now, and it’s averaging a score of 8.9, which is VERY HIGH for that site. So, if it is playing in your town this weekend, and you get a chance to see it, post your thoughts in the comments section. I’m eager to here what the general consensus is.
Update: Regular reader Azzfan from The Caffeinated Blog has posted a comment saying that she saw Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch (He’s playing Chris McCandless) and Jon Krakauer on Oprah. Penn revealed that the movie would go into wide release on Oct. 5th.
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Hopefully they will open the movie nationwide the following week. I am sure with Penn attached, it has got to go national. That kind of upsets me as well. I have been waiting on this movie for months now.
Yeah, I’m kind of bummed that’s not opening wider as well. Hopefully it will soon.
Penn is a big name as an actor, but not so much as a director, so if this was meant to be an art house film, it may never go into wide release. But lets hope it rolls out nation wide soon.
Just to let you know, I was flipping channels a bit ago and saw Sean Penn on Oprah so I stopped and he was talking about this. It was pretty interesting as he explained how they filmed the movie and also talked to Emile Hirsch and Jon Krakauer. Anyway, they said it’ll be out in wide release on October 5th.
Awesome! Good to know! Thanks for the update. I’m going to add that to the main page.
No problem! It made me pretty happy to hear that.
Very Cool! I am glad to hear that. I am kind of bummed though on a couple of factors…first off, if I knew Krakauer and Penn were on Oprah, it would have been the very first time I would have tuned in…
Secondly…I am bummed that Oprah got the scoop on the wide release before Kraig and I…lol
Here’s another tidbit. Ever here of the Hollywood Stock Exchange? It is an online game based on Movies and actors and how well they are going to do. Coming from the public, the game has proved to be pretty reliable as far as figures. Studios actually put out ideas into the game, and if they seem to draw an interest, then they make the movie..
Anyways, Into the Wild is opening in only 4 theaters this week. New York and Los Angelas take up all four of them.
They are also predicting the movie to only gross $10 Million..which is extremely low. On the message boards, It is carrying quite a buzz..and with the recent publicity on Oprah–it should do well better than the $10 million predicted.
We will see.