Same Story, Different Film

Posted by Brian C. Gibson (brian@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 10, 2006

Infamous, which will be premiering at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, is a film that documents Truman Capote’s journey to Kansas that eventually led him to write his bestselling novel In Cold Blood. Sound familiar? It should, because that film already won Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar. So I guess the question to ask is: Do we really need two films about the same man and the same story within two years of each other? Judging from this all-star cast, it looks like Warner Independent Pictures seems to think so.

A not so famous, but strikingly perfect looking for the part, Toby Jones will be playing Truman Capote. Sandra Bullock will be trying to fill the shoes that Catherine Keener already filled as Harper Lee. The new James Bond, Daniel Craig, will be playing Perry Smith. Other notable cast members are Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sigourney Weaver. The film has already been associated with some controversy because of Paltrow’s three minute cameo, in which it is reported that she has received a massive paycheck for. Also, Mark Wahlberg was involved until he heard that Capote would be released first.

David Thompson, a writer for The Independent, reports that Toby Jones’ Capote is a better fit than Hoffman’s.

The achievement of the film - and it delivers - is to show that Capote was a shit, a devious glory-seeker and a fine writer who got his own way all the time. That film says he was ruined by his success, but you don’t feel it, because Hoffman’s Capote is too tough and too self-centred (sic) to be brought down by his own moral failure

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