reading moby dick has turned out to be much easier than i thought; after hearing everyone and their mom tell me it was a long, laborious book, i was loaded for bear; only to find out that it's quite funny. of course, this might have something to do with my imagination's casting charlie day as ishmael. seems strange? melville has a good ear for humor, and charlie is perfect as the everyman narrator. so perfect, i think, that i've caught myself daydreaming of making tons of money and filming the book verbatim (and try as i might, i cannot find the same mental discipline to have danny devito in ahab's shoes; my brain always pictures patrick stewart). of course, for the theatrical release, it'll be cut down to the action, but i envision a dvd with so many extras...oh, man.
for example: the snoring chapter where ishmael tries to catagorize all the whales? we'll film that in the ship's hold. char...er, ishmael will be giving a sort-of lecture to the ship's dimmer complement, and drawing the different types of whales on a rudimentary chalk board. and while it's obvious that ishmael is a pretty decent scholar, perhaps he's not a good artist, so all the whales look alike. hilarious, no?
clear your schedule in a year or two, mr. day - your chance at oscar gold will come when i make enough money and garner enough hollywood muscle to film moby dick.