Sunday, August 19, 2007

Lonesome Dove and Larry McMurtry

There's good news for all of us Lonesome Dove fans. It looks like we'll be seeing a lot of Larry McMurtry stuff in the months to come.
I've just learned that Comanche Moon, a movie that takes place after the 1996 movie Dead Mans Walk , starring David Arquette and Tommy Lee Miller, and before the original Lonesome Dove starring Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall, is in production and due to be released in November of this year as a TV mini series.
Comanche Moon stars Karl Urban as Woodrow F. Call and Steve Zahn as Gus McCrae. Val Kilmer, Wes Studi and Elizabeth Banks are among some of the others who also star in the movie. I'm sure it will be a hit.
Boone's Lick, another Larry McMurtry book, is also in pre-production. Boone's Lick stars Tom Hanks and Julianne Moore and is due to be released sometime in 2008. I'm must confess, I've never read this one and don't know much about it. Below is the plot summary from the IMDb website:

Told with McMurtry's unique blend of historical fact and sheer storytelling genius, the novel follows the Cecil family's arduous journey by riverboat and wagon from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. Fifteen-year-old Shay narrates, describing the journey that begins when his Ma, Mary Margaret, decides to hunt down her elusive husband, Dick, to tell him she's leaving him. Without knowing precisely where he is, they set out across the plains in search of him, encountering grizzly bears, stormy weather, and hostile Indians as they go. With them are Shay's siblings, G.T., Neva, and baby Marcy; Shay's uncle, Seth; his Grandpa Crackenthorpe; and Mary Margaret's beautiful half-sister, Rose. During their journey they pick up a barefooted priest named Father Villy, and a Snake Indian named Charlie Seven Days, and persuade them to join in their travels. Written by Giorgio_C Boone's Lick revolves around a headstrong woman who drags her family on a rickety wagon from Boone's Lick, Mo., to the Wyoming fort where her husband lives. Moore plays the woman and Hanks plays her husband's brother, who escorts the woman, her four children and her father on the trek and falls in love with her during the perilous journey Written by Cat Stevens

If that isn't enough Larry McMurtry westerns for you, there's a book due to be released this October entitled A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove by Bill Wittliff. Below is a blurb from The University of Texas Press website:
"Lonesome Dove is a great book that had the rare fortune of being made into a great movie. And now, through Bill Wittliff's photographs, we have a third generation of Lonesome Dove artistry. The same creative power and conviction that allowed Larry McMurtry to transform a workaday scenario for an unproduced screenplay into one of the greatest novels of our time, and that transformed that novel into the greatest western movie ever made, are on display in this collection. A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove is a masterpiece begot by a masterpiece begot by a masterpiece." —Stephen Harrigan
Larry McMurtry's books and movies are my favorites. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see these movies or to get my hands on this picture book!
For those of you who are on MySpace and would like to add LD to your list of Myspace friends, here's a link to THE LONESOME DOVE Myspace site.
This isn't an official site, and the site itself isn't anything fancy, however, it might come in handy to have on your friends list. That's how I learned about the LD picture book.
Happy trails!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Comanche Moon is not a remake of Dead Mans Walk but is in fact a book of it's own which tells of the lives of Woodrow and Gus during a 20 year span between Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove.
The actor who portrayed Woodrow in Dead Mans Walk was Johnny Lee Miller not Tommy. I thought as an author you might want a little more accurate information.

Carol Burge said...

Hi Anonymous-Thanks for setting me straight on a few facts regarding my Lonesome Dove post. Yes, you're correct, as a writer I would like to have had more accurate facts and I SHOULD have made sure of that.

I'm glad you cleared up the Dead Mans Walk issue - I was confused. I really DID think Comanche Moon was a remake of DMW.

Believe it or not, I do know the difference between Johnny Lee Miller and Tommy Lee Jones and who played in what. I did indicate this in my original post, however, as I was writing this (this is no excuse however, I just want you to know that I'm not such a duffus), the original post somehow got deleted. The whole hour I'd spent writing this article was gone, pouff, disappeared into thin air.

Needless to say, I was very upset. I had to re-write evertthing all over from scratch and memory, hence, the mistakes.

I should have let this post sit a whiile (like I originally thought I should), before posting the re-written version. I went against my better judgement and I shouldn't have.

Thank you so much for taking the time to point these mistakes out. I've learned a valuable lesson, thanks to you. :)

Best Wishes,

~Carol

Anonymous said...

"tells of the lives of Woodrow and Gus during a 20 year span between Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove."

This is great! I am a huge fan too!

Carol Burge said...

I know, I love Lonesome Dove. I can't wait for this movie and the picture book!

Hugs,

~Carol

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to find two books that I read in junior high (circa 1965). I believe Larry McMurtry "borrowed" from them when writing Lonesome Dove.

The books are about a young man growing up on a south Texas ranch in the 1800's. In the first one, he and a friend make a hog drive, get caught in floodwaters, etc. In the second book, he is older and rescues a female schoolmate from Comancheros and kills the abductor in the end in a shootout.
There is a character named Olney who has a hole in his head (the counterpart to Lippy in Lonesome Dove).

I've been trying to remember enough to find the books ever since I read Lonesome Dove way back then.

Can anyone here help?