Quendrith Johnson

by Quendrith Johnson Los Angeles Correspondent

Just when you had forgotten all about Ernest Hemingway? Nobody forgets this author, not for long anyway. At least he has not yet become a victim of cancel culture. Yet Hemingway's last novel "Across the River and Into the Trees" in 1950, from Charles Scribner & Sons in New York, was actually panned in some places by reviewers who felt perhaps it might be interpreted as a 'parody' of the spare, simple declaractive sentence structure of his signature titanic writing style. 

Philip Rahv, co-founder of the Partisan Review, called "Across the River and Into the Trees" so "egregiously bad as to render all comment on it positively embarassing." Those were the days, when literary critics, in fact all critics, could let it rip without fear of reprisal. Not that Rahv was necessarily correct in his assessment, because someone who writes as Hemingway did is bound to be held to a standard so impossibly high not even Ernest Hemingway could satisfy all readers.

But, as Simon & Schuster glows about the book, you will have to decide for yourself.  As in? "Across the River and into the Trees stands as Hemingway's statement of defiance in response to the great dehumanizing atrocities of the Second World War. Hemingway's last full-length novel published in his lifetime, it moved John O'Hara in The New York Times Book Review to call him "the most important author since Shakespeare."'

In any case, the movie version shows promise already in the capable hands of capable leading man, Liev Schreiber.

Read on...

From Screenmancer

LOS ANGELES, CA: Tribune Pictures and The Exchange announced today that six-time Golden Globe nominee actor Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan, Spotlight, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is attached to lead the adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s final novel to be dramatized - NY Times bestseller: ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES.

The adaptation will start production in Venice, Italy and the Veneto region under Covid-19 guidelines next month with the support of the Italian Tax Credit under the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali and with the continued support of the Regional Administration of Veneto and the City of Venice and will be introduced to buyers through The Exchange at the TIFF 2020 Virtual market.

Produced by Robert MacLean of Tribune Pictures, the adapted screenplay by BAFTA-award-winning screenwriter Peter Flannery will be directed by award-winning Spanish director Paula Ortiz (THE BRIDE) with award winning director of photography Javier Aguirresarobe (BLUE JASMINE, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, THOR RAGNAROK, THE ROAD) and production designer Benjamin Fernandez (GLADIATOR, EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS).

Joining Schreiber, ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES stars award-winning Italian breakthrough actress Matilda De Angelis (THE PRIZE), who was selected as a ‘Shooting Star’ during the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, award-winning Italian Laura Morante (CHERRY ON THE CAKE, THE BALL), award-winning Spanish actor Javier Cámara (TRUMAN) and Academy Award-nominated Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (QUANTUM OF SOLACE).

John Smallcombe and Ken Gord are also producing, William J. Immerman is Executive Producer. Andrea Biscaro is Italian Line Producer. Filomena Cusano is production counsel.

Additional cast will be announced shortly.

ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES is the story of Colonel Richard Cantwell, played by Schreiber, a semi-autobiographical character partially-based-on Hemingway’s friend Colonel Charles T. Lanham. Hemingway had his own relationship with Italian aristocrat, Adriana Ivancich. Cantwell is a complex and conflicted character, wounded and damaged both physically and mentally by the war, seeking inner peace, and trying to come to terms with his own mortality.

“Robert MacLean of Tribune Pictures has garnered/gathered a very impressive award-winning team for ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES, one of the few projects the international audience will be able to look forward next year,” said Brian O’Shea of The Exchange.

Schreiber is represented by Untitled Entertainment and UTA; De Angelis by Volver Consulenze Artistiche; Morante by Moira Mazzatini TNA Rome; Cámara by Paloma Juanes, Yoann de Birague & Associes and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher; Giannini by Studio Squillante. Director Paula Ortiz is represented by Ruth Franco Talent in Madrid.

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