Philip Pullman took a breather from the ‘Narnia-gate’ media frenzy yesterday to respond to the other big literature-goes-to-Hollywood story of last week: Paradise Lost will be coming to a theatre near you in 2007!
“There have been rumours about a film of Paradise Lost for a long time,” Pullman says. “There was even talk of a script written by a famous novelist whose name I have now forgotten; I don’t know whether they’re using that in this new adaptation, but it would certainly be a huge challenge to adapt Milton’s story for the screen. He does tell the story very well, but there’s a mighty long flashback in the middle of his version that would make a movie sag badly if they followed Milton’s structure.”
“There’s also the problem of what to do with the verse. The majesty of the language is a huge part of what the poem is about – lines like “High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold …” would be sadly missed by any lover of the poem, but what do you do with them in a film? They’re stage directions: the next words are “Satan exalted sat,” and you could just show that by – showing it. It would be a pity to reduce that poetry to a mere brief for the designer. So I look forward to this project with great interest, and some hope, but a little scepticism too.”
LINK to excerpt from Pullman’s introduction to Milton’s classic.
I am glad someone of Pullman’s calibre is involved with the film. Incidentally, when we had to truncate and perform Book II of Paradise Lost in my honours Milton class, we truncated the sentence Pullman mentions exactly as he indicates: “High on a throne of royal state, Satan exalted sat.”
Ed. note: Pullman is NOT involved, as yet, in the PL film project.
Hi there,
This is Peter Teiman writing from Sweden.I truly believe that his current project will be as much a success as all his others.
Peter Teiman