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HBO Developing Hermaphrodite Series MIDDLESEX, Based On The Pulitzer/Oprah Club Novel By That VIRGIN SUICIDES Guy!!
I am – Hercules!!
“Middlesex,” the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (“The Virgin Suicides”) that won both a Pulitzer Prize and a slot in Oprah’s Book Club, has been optioned by HBO, which hopes to turn it into an hourlong series.
As best I can piece together, the book is about an inbred Turkish-American hermaphrodite in Detroit whose grandparents were brother and sister.
The book will be adapted by screenwriter David Marguiles (the HBO TV-movie “Dinner With Friends”), who produces with Rita Wilson (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” “Mamma Mia!”). Wilson is married to Tom Hanks, who produces “Big Love” and loads of miniseries for HBO.
Find all of Broadcasting and Cable’s exclusive on the matter here.
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I beg of you. The book's a classic. An epic of family and sexuality. Obviously too big for a film, but do not try to water it down by turning it into an ongoing series. I don't see more than two 13-hour seasons being churned from this book. And if people knew it was a finite series that not only had a chance of ending, but ending well before apathy and a lack of storylines and character details caused the show to jump the shark (like every hourlong HBO has attempted except for "The Wire"), I think people will tune in. Show could pull some serious "John Adams" numbers. Also, since she did a great job with Eugenides' "The Virgin Suicides," I nominate Sophia Coppola to direct the pilot, many of the episodes, and the finale. PLEASE!
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Jul 07, 2009 4:47:03 AM CDT
And this could be a great pilot for an ongoing anthology series.
by the tao of joe
I imagine that HBO - if they do in fact want an on-going series - could make an ongoing series wherein each season is an adaptation of a great, modern novel that many felt was unfilmable. "A Confederacy of Dunces" would be amazing, as would "The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay." And if this series lasts long enough, who knows, perhaps they could even do "Watchmen" justice.
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Ali G comes from. Staines is in Middlesex, as is Grays. So there. A bit of UK geography for you all there :)
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THEN I SEE THERE'S INBREEDING INVOLVED AND I'M GOING TO HOLD OUT HOPE THAT HBO WILL BE ABLE TO PULL THIS OUT OF THE CRAPPER.
LETS HOPE FOR LOTS OF BANJO MUSIC AND GRAMPA WITH A HAMMER AND BIG METAL CATCH PAN. -
has NOT petered out, the most recent season was fuckin AWESOME. That one is still goin strong. Oh, and would HBO PLEASE try to mix it up a bit and get A Song Of Ice And Fire on the fucking air already? PRetty Please?
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dammit :( I'm sure there are loads...
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By my lack of coffee. And now I forget what I was going to say. Something about the book. Oh, well.
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One of the best drama pilots i've seen in this decade. Shame F/X passed on it.
As for Middlesex. Another reason too pick up the novel. -
...where I would have just ignored the description and said, fuck it, it's an HBO show, I'm there. Not so much anymore. Big Love is the only decent thing they have left.
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SOLD!
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Especially if you're from Detroit, as the book works really well as as a history of the city in the 20th century. I agree a miniseries would probably work better but there is tons of material to be culled from the book that would make fantastic television drama. It's a coming of age tale. The Greek/Turkish war. Prohibition. The Great Depression. The race riots. The Nation of Islam's infiltration of the Detroit slums. The auto industry's forced assimilation programs. Immigration tension. Entrepreneurism. And of course transgendered identity issues. The book is a gem and I look forward to this.
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I agree that 26 eps wouldn't be a miniseries, but if they wanted to do a one or two-season "Limited Series" that would be a much better idea than an ongoing series. And if it's a hit, imagine the possibilities of adapting other books of epic length in this manner. Perhaps "East of Eden" could be fully realized, or even "The Grapes of Wrath." Again, the possibilities are limitless.
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I'm with you that HBO's golden days with Sopranos, Deadwood, Carnivale, SFU, The Wire, Oz and Rome are gone and they made a lot of mistakes under the new regime, but there is plenty more of good stuff.
True Blood and In Treatment may not be as good as the best shows on Showtime, AMC and F/X but they are still great television and miles ahead of 95% on network teleivision. Entourage and Curb your Enthusiasm are still the best comedies on TV(on par with The Office and South Park) and with Hung they have a very promising dramedy.
Of course they still need 2-3 event dramas(let's hope they greenlight Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire) but the current state is nothing to be ashamed of. Even the lesser shows like FOTC or Eastbound and Down are watchable.The crappy multicamera sitcom with Luis CK was the only HBO original series from the last 7-10 years I stopped watching after the pilot. -
I agree with the Tao of Joe. This would be an amazing mini-series. far too dense for a film, but not enough to base a show around. A mini-series would be fucking epic.
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Ok, it's cable, I get it, they can push the boundries. But why does everyone of these show have to involve some kind of bizarre or fetish sex or sexual theme. Why can't they just make a good show that doesn't have some kind of sex gimmick?
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I loved that book. One of my favorites. (Loved "Suicides", too. Eugenides is a brilliant writer. Few people can write about longing like he does.) How will this become an ongoing series without straying totally away from the book? The book is about a hermaphrodite, but the 1st half of the book is about his/her grandparents and parents. Will the series just focus on Cal or jump around in time? Oh, well.
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AMC is killing HBO. HBO needs to give up the gay agenda shit. There's no reason to watch that channel anymore.
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HBO is dead. Should have greenlit "The Preacher". Idiots.
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Geek Love, World War Z, Kavalier & Clay, just to name some off the top of my head. Middlesex, while being a book I love, doesn't really strike me as being ripe for series, with the timeline the character goes through (not to mention the backstory, though I suppose that could be cut). Would we just have a different actor each season as the character ages? The gender switch (of sorts) that would occur somewhere in the middle would prove interesting though.
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well HBO is doin good on original series so far.....true blood , hung.... but all i can say is FUCK OPRAH...id rather she died than michael jackson, or anyone else for that matter....shes just a self serving, full of herself, narcisistic bitch...like i said fuck her...
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Seriously, let's stay on topic here.....all Sarah Palin talkbacks all the time. Nobody cares about this stupid book.
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Oh, Bill Maher too. I don't need the other shit.
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Could have gotten more stories than just Dillinger's. As for HBO, it doesn't have to be weird to be original, you know. True Blood, just started watching it on Netflix, is okay so far. Hung doesn't sound appealing at all and I have no idea what to make of this one. All I know is that we are nowhere near the peaks of The Sopranos, The Wire, or Deadwood. If True Blood is the best they can do right now its no wonder AMC is geting all the emmys.
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Soprano's, Deadwood, Rome, Curb Your Enthusiasm, inbred hermaphrodite show. Ummmm yeah.
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The family is actually Greek, not Turkish. Oh, and by the way, Best. Book. Ever.
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Margulies. He won a Pulitzer for his play Dinner with Friends before he adapted it for HBO. And HBO isn't trying to be "weird" just to be "original" by adapting Jeffrey Eugenides Pulitzer winning novel. They're trying to make decent television out of a brilliant, complex work of art, and they're hiring a very accomplished dramatist to do it. I know that's a very foreign concept to a few of you, But not all movies and tv shows should be based on comic books. Oh, excuse me, graphic novels. You could read something else every once in a while.
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"Turkish" Jeez. Yeah, just like Forrest Gump was Mexican. Some of y'all need to pick up a book every now and then. This one is great, I'm looking forward to seeing it on screen.
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cock, bigamy, psycho and other weird&perverted shit nobody can really relate to and actually fucking cares about. Where is the orginal in HBO anyway? Worse than remakes are doing things by the "book"..
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WAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! "Hollywood has no original ideas anymore." "Stop with all the remakes." "Can't anyone in Hollywood go into a book store?" "American cinema is dead." HBO is adapting a show based on a highly touted novel written by a Pulitzer winner and all of you same crybabies that bitch and moan about no original ideas and all the remakes are bitching because it's not the Sopranos. Don't watch it!!! Then maybe HBO will do a series based on Sanford and Son instead!
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or maybe they'll make a decent show again.
This crap is pure crap. Its obvious the people in charge there now are out of touch with anything beyond their own limited social circles. -
what ? cant relate to ? why do u need something to relate to ? its a tv show, its supposed to be entertaining not self reflective..sheez whats wrong with people these days.
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