In the late 50s, novelist Richard Yates wasn’t liking what he was seeing- a lack of revolutionary spirit replaced with a general quest for the perceived security resting behind white picket fences, track housing and Congressional hearings. At the very least, his observations sound familiar in a time when an American public seems less concerned about events shaping their world and more about how to forget about them. Which makes Revolutionary Road, the book spawned from his observations, somewhat apropos (and equally depressing).
A movie based on the book is in the works, and who better to direct than the guy who can make depressing subjects work like a Folsom Prison bitch- Sam Mendes.
Mendes has added a few names to the roster of Revolutionary Road, which is looking more and more like the Titanic reunion tour which could easily be titled "Why drowning would have been better". Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are starring, while naked hot-tubber Kathy Bates has been added to play a real estate agent in the story of the Wheelers – two suburbanites whose hopes are hopeless, whose dreams frustrated and who try to insert meaning in life through infidelity, attempting to avoid the fact they are ultimately, as Yates puts it "inescapably alone".
Depressing. Still, the Mendes is at the helm, so you know depression and futility will never have looked so good. Revolutionary Road begins shooting this summer with a release plan for 2008.