I review plenty of film adaptations of beloved books, and when I do, I generally try to ignore the book altogether and consider the film on its own merits — it just seems the best and fairest way to do it. However, that’s impossible for me here. The Rum Diary is just too alive in my mind for it not to color my entire viewing experience. (Just so you know where we stand).

The first thing you have to know about The Rum Diary is that it’s a much different book than Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In Fear and Loathing, Hunter S. Thompson was writing a stylized account of himself as an established journalist on a clear mission (to find the American Dream). The Rum Diary is a novel Thompson wrote when he was 22 (though not published until much later) and still trying to figure out his path in life. Where Fear and Loathing was specific, Rum Diary is crafted from broad strokes. It isn’t particularly plot-driven, and succeeds largely on the strength of the themes and on Hunter’s prose. In fact, despite it being one of my favorite books, I don’t think I could’ve told you much about the plot or any of the characters going in. What had stayed with me was that it was about a 20-something year-old writer terrified of getting old and selling out, written by that same 20-something-year old writer, and read by me, when I was– well, I think you can fill in the rest. An equally scary prospect was selling out’s alternative, sticking to your principles only to have them make you nothing but poor and embittered.

“No matter how much I wanted all those things that I needed money to buy, there was some devilish current pushing me off in another direction – toward anarchy and poverty and craziness. That maddening delusion that a man can lead a decent life without hiring himself out as a Judas Goat.”

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From what we hear, the movie adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary has been finished for more than a year, just sitting around waiting for a release. It’s finally set to open October 28th, and now it has a trailer. And not a moment too soon. Johnny Depp was dangerously close to becoming permanently known as “that guy from the Bruckheimer movies with all the accessories.” Anyway, it’s nice to see him back drifting towards anarchy, poverty, and craziness, trying to live a decent life without hiring himself out as a Judas goat and all that.

Directed by Bruce Robinson, the cast is pretty insane, starring Depp as the newbie ex-pat Puerto Rican journalist Kemp, Richard Jenkins as Lotterman, Aaron Eckhardt as Sanderson, Amber Heard as Sanderson’s fianceé, and Giovanni Ribisi as Moberg (a character who gets blackout drunk and the next morning locates his car by smell — a man after my own heart), who I hear steals the show. So, from what we know, a real movie with a real cast and a real story. It’s nice to see that someone finally got around to actually releasing it between movies about explosions, aliens, and the military. The book it’s based on is quite popular, and I’m told there’s even a climactic rape scene that they reenact every year at the Puerto Rican Day Parade. What? I kid, I kid.

BOOM. MOTHERF**KIN BEDAZZLED TORTOISE, SON!

Buzzfeed just dug up a new old letter from Hunter S. Thompson on LettersofNote, and if anything warrants an automatic FilmDrunk post, it’s angry letters (or phone messages) from Hunter Thompson.

Written in 1971, at which point young Mike Peterson was a resident of South Bend, Indiana, the furious missive was sent in response to a piece of satire he submitted [which earned him a fellowship -ed.] to Rolling Stone magazine; unluckily for him — or luckily, depending on your angle — said piece was forwarded to Hunter for assessment. This was his reaction. Note: For those interested, the original piece written by Mike that inspired such a response can be read here. [LettersofNote]

I got about three paragraphs into Peterson’s piece and had a similar (though less memorable) reaction to Hunter. My favorite part of Hunter’s letter was “Sincerely, [intentionally unintelligible scribble], Yail Bloor III, Minister of Belles-Lettre.”

The name Yail Bloor sounded familiar and I figured it had a backstory, and it does. “Yail Bloor” was the name Hunter gave to Aspen bar owner/real estate broker Michael Solheim for his article “The Great Shark Hunt.” Solheim was the guy who first introduced Hunter to Oscar Acosta, aka Dr. Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Benicio Del Toro in the movie), and served as campaign manager during Hunter’s run for mayor of Aspen. Solheim is the dude in the middle in the picture below (via the NYTimes):

In William McKeen’s Hunter S. Thompson biography, he writes:

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The Johnny Depp-starring adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Rum Diary finished principal photography almost two years ago, and a film with huge star in it sitting on the shelf so long is usually a bad sign.  but I posted a reader’s review of in April of 2010, and it sounded pretty positive.  So when the hell do we actually get to see it?  The answer is soon, provided your idea of “soon” is in October.  Here’s the official press release via distributor FilmDistrict, who’s releasing their first two films, Insidious and Soul Surfer, this weekend and the following.

FilmDistrict will release “The Rum Diary,” based on the early Hunter S. Thompson novel that was ultimately published in 1998. It stars Johnny Depp and will be released on October 28, 2011. The film is directed by Bruce Robinson (“Withnail and I”) from his own screenplay and also stars Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Michael Rispoli, Richard Jenkins and Giovanni Ribisi. “The Rum Diary” is produced by Infinitum Nihil, the production company headed by Depp and Christi Dembrowski, along with Graham King and Tim Headington. Anthony Rhulen and Robert Kravis also produce.

“The Rum Diary” tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Depp). Tired of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local San Juan newspaper run by the downtrodden editor Lotterman (Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked lifestyle of the late ‘50s version of Hemingway’s “The Lost Generation,” Paul soon becomes entangled with a very attractive American woman, Chenault (Heard) and her fiancée Sanderson (Eckhart), a businessman involved in shady property development deals. It is within this world that Kemp ultimately discovers his true voice as a writer and integrity as a man. [CinemaBlend]

I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this damned movie, and I can’t believe I have to wait… SEVEN MORE MONTHS??!?!  My God, it’s an eternity.  But what if I’ve PUT AWAY childish things by then?

I don’t care whether this qualifies as news or not, because it’s awesome. It’s a picture of Hunter S. Thompson, John Cusack, and Johnny Depp riding around in a convertible with a blow-up doll.  Remember when Hunter took off to Las Vegas in search of the American Dream?  There was no need.  It was right here all along.  Right here in this picture.  Also, I know they stink, they’re expensive, they rot your teeth, they give you wrinkles, and they’re bad for you, but can any person honestly deny that cigarettes are really f*cking cool? [pic via IheartChaos]

ADDITIONAL NON-TIMELY TRIVIA: In a recent interview, Cameron Crowe said that in the boombox scene in Say Anything, the song John Cusack was playing was actually “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” by Fishbone.

John Cusack is playing Fishbone’s ‘Bonin’ in the Boneyard’ in the actual scene, but when we put the movie together, it didn’t work at all. He seemed like a crazed Fishbone fan who just happened to be outside her window.

Yep, that’s pretty weird.

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