Carney's "Town House"

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Missing in Michael Fleming's Variety story about Town House, a film that Once director John Carney will begin shooting in January for Fox 2000, is that it's fundamentally about a character grappling with agorahobia, i.e., a fear of open spaces.

Doug Wright's script is an adaptation of Tish Coen's recently released book. Coehn's story unfolds in Boston; Fleming reported that the film "will shoot on the East Coast." Does that mean New London? Asbury Park? Does Carney have a problem with Beantown, or was Fleming just writing the story under a hard deadline?

Here's an Amazon/Booklist summary: "The son of a legendary rock musician, Jack Madigan (an Irishman!) has been living off his father's royalties for years, but things are looking dire as the money runs out. His wife has already left, unable to deal with Jack's refusal to confront his agoraphobia; his teenage son, who avidly embraces 1970s clothing because 'uncool is the new cool," may relocate to California with his mom..

"But Jack's once magnificent Boston townhouse, now crumbling around him, is being repossessed by the bank. Even his work as a color consultant -- he has been tinkering for years with a formula for the perfect white--is failing to provide the funds he so desperately needs. His only hope is the charming but hopelessly inept realtor assigned to sell the house. With the help of the little girl next door, whose dream is to become an Olympic skater, Jack suddenly finds himself motivated to face his greatest fear -- stepping outside of his house.

"Rising above its obvious, overly tidy plotting, this highly readable first novel offers plenty of sardonic humor and a cast of endearing eccentrics."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 17, 2007 at 1:13 PM

comment #1

source188 says ...

is that the Cosby's residence?

Posted by source188 at July 17, 2007 2:33 PM

comment #2

tholl-yung says ...

That's nice, a reason to stay home (Swell Season is sold out) a reason to go out (Once is screening tonight).

Posted by tholl-yung at July 17, 2007 3:08 PM

comment #3

tholl-yung says ...

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/once/

Track 7

Posted by tholl-yung at July 17, 2007 11:47 PM

comment #4

BurmaShave says ...

Wells, how long have you written about film? Just because something is set in Beantown doesn't mean it will be filmed there. A large part of non Toronto-debuting THE DEPARTED was filmed in NYC, as I'm sure you know.

There should be more movies filmed in Asbury Park though, as I'm sure a fellow son of the Garden State will agree. Where's our fucking New Jersey Devil film? Where's our fucking Springsteen biopic?!

Posted by BurmaShave at July 18, 2007 12:21 AM

comment #5

DavidF says ...

Cohen isn't that hard to spell despite the two variations here.

I've interviewed the author who lives up here near Toronto and she liked what Wright had done. The book is actually notable because the galleys sold to Scott Free Prods. BEFORE finding a publisher.

Anyway, the neighbourhood in the book - Beacon Hill - is pretty important. I know you can shoot the interiors anywhere - and most of this book takes place inside the one house.

I didn't know a lot of Departed was shot in NYC...they did a heck of a job there, then.

I'm down with the Springsteen biopic, though.

Posted by DavidF at July 18, 2007 7:06 AM

comment #6

tholl-yung says ...

"she liked what Wright had done," such as?

Do y'all Once fans remember us'all trying to think of the song Marketa sings at the piano during their break in the recording studio - the one she couldn't finish? (I heard audible groans from the audience.) It's "The Hill." I'm going to go negative, because the recorded version doesn't live up to the movie version. I would have taken the movie track and tacked on the songs ending (without the strings section). The movie version will be up on YouTube, I predict.

Posted by tholl-yung at July 18, 2007 8:27 AM

comment #7

DavidF says ...

In answer to TH Ung's Q...
Basically, this is her first novel to sell. It sold to Hollywood before even finding a publisher and she saw a finished screenplay before the book even hit shelves. They've really been fasttracking it.

Since so many books get optioned and then never get produced she was pleased, for starters, to even have someone of Wright's calibre doing the screenplay.
I know Wright changed the ending and while it was naturally weird for her, as a new author, to see someone else's version of her book, she liked how he had streamlined it without compromising it. Sorry if that's all too vague.

Posted by DavidF at July 18, 2007 9:23 AM

comment #8