Jean-Philippe Baril Guerard’s Sports and Pastimes (translated by Aimee Wall, BookThug) achieves the nigh-impossible: it perfectly describes the apathy and disillusionment of wealthy youth (in this case, wealthy Montreal youth) while still being super-fun to read. It’s a premise ripe for film adaptation…so adapt we did.
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Our new and improved Character Study column takes the CanLit books you love and re-imagines them as Hollywood movies: who would play your favourite bookish characters and why.From the description for Sports and Pastimes:”This week, I sang karaoke, I swam, I drank, I ate poutine, I rock climbed, I did coke, I went road biking, I ate hundred-buck plates, I did yoga while hungover, I made $4K in fifteen minutes, I took a selfie, I danced, I made out, I fucked in an alley, I read Nietzsche, I read gossip rags, I appeared in gossip rags, I drank wine at a movie opening, I was recognized on the street, I jogged, I despised a lot of people, I recounted the sum of all my combined wealth, beauty, money, youth, time–especially time–and I spent it all. Basically, I avoided asking myself questions.”Now, if that doesn’t sound like a storyboard for an indiehouse movie trailer, what does, reader? What does?Jean-Philippe sent us his cast list and we got to work:
Also, we thought Obvious Child‘s director Gillian Robespierre was an obvious choice to put this script to screen.And behold, the poster:For more, check out Sports and Pastimes translator Aimee Wall talking about her translation process through a previous book, Testament.* * *Thanks so much to Jean-Philippe for playing casting director, and to Hazel at BookThug for making the connection. Sports and Pastimes is available now. For more books made into movies (if only in our own heads), click here.
