The Curse of Lono - upcoming movie

I've just heard that Hunter S Thompson is currently in the process of writing the screenplay for 'The Curse of Lono', which is to be filmed on location in Hawaii later this year.

'The Curse of Lono' is Hunter's long-out-of-print book describing a 'Fear & Loathing' type adventure which occurred while covering the Honolulu marathon. The book itself is illustrated with a great many Tiki drawings by Ralph Steadman, and the gist of the story is that Hunter believes by the end of the book that he is indeed the Tiki God, Lono.

Obviously we'll have to wait and see how much Tiki gets into the movie, but if the book is anything to go by, Tiki should feature strongly!

Trader Woody

Sweet. I love Hunter S Thompson, and I especially like Ralph Steadman. Great art. Is the book a good read?

Yeah, the book is really enjoyable, though it's not a long read. It's more like a mini version of Fear and Loathing rather than Hunter's more political works, and came about in a similar way. (Both Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and The Curse of Lono were magazine assignments which went weird, were originally published in the magazines, then were published as boooks).

Lono is currently difficult to get hold of and you can pay anything from $50 upwards for a copy, but I understand a new edition is in the works.

Trader Woody

On 2004-02-10 04:20, Trader Woody wrote:
Yeah, the book is really enjoyable, though it's not a long read. It's more like a mini version of Fear and Loathing...

Lono is currently difficult to get hold of and you can pay anything from $50 upwards for a copy, but I understand a new edition is in the works.

...Fear And Loathing is a pretty slim read to begin with.

I am certain that when this movie is released, there willl be a reissue of the book to tie in with the movie release. Sort of silly to make a movie of a book no one can get. The question is whether or not Steadman's original drawings will be intact. Knowing how closely tied togehter Thompson and Steadman have always been, I think it's a good bet we'll get a faithful reprint (probably with a new cover depicting the star of the movie, tho). Johnny Depp?

I hope not Johnny Depp, he bears about as much resemblance to HST as my granny does. I love that book!

aloha,
em

On 2004-02-11 13:26, emspace wrote:
I hope not Johnny Depp, he bears about as much resemblance to HST as my granny does.

True about the resembalnce, but he was good as Hunter in Fear and Loathing...

Yep, Johnny Depp. Which is okay by me. I think he's a fine actor.

You know the famous Tiki Bob mug that was made for the cast/crew of Blue Hawaii? The one that goes for very big $$$? Perhaps a Curse of Lono mug could be made in conjunction with the movie makers and a few extras made available for Tiki Centralites?

Gecko springs to mind as the man with the skills (both mug-designing and networking)
to get the idea up and running. Plus the movie is being made in Hawaii! The cast and crew would undoubtably love to have a cool souvenir of the shoot, so a whole bunch of mugs could be sold in one big batch.

Perhaps a mug could be designed, pitched to the producers (or whoever deals with that sort of thing) and then made if they like the concept.

It'll be a long while until the movie starts filming, so that gives plenty of time to mull over the idea...

Trader Woody

I assume the authors views on Koreans will not make it into the screenplay.

the tiki bar scene in Fear and Loathing was filmed at the Bahooka in Rosemead. There's a Ralph Steadman book in the art section at Borders that has a few Tiki illustrations. Nice lines. We're gonna need a fast car, no top!

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-10 13:54 ]

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-10 13:54 ]

On 2004-02-12 10:53, limptiki wrote:
I assume the authors views on Koreans will not make it into the screenplay.

I'm not really sure which 'views' you refer to, but if you are insinuating that Hunter is a racist, you barking up the wrong tree. In the early 60's he went on the civil rights marches in the deep south. Coming from Kentucky himself, he wasn't just bused in from an elite Northern University either, so this took a fair amount of balls.

His language can be colourful to say the least & he's hardly PC, but he's no racist.

Trader Woody

Whoa woody - I'm a huge Hunter fan, and like the Lono book- have you read it? I seem to remember a certain observation in it as referred to above... I 'm sure it was not edited out of the UK printing.

Well this movie is already in production (The Rum Diary) and it looks like Hunter and Johnny Depp have an arrangement or contract with the studio.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376136/

Great!