Shapton Book Important Artifacts... Gets Hollywood Adaptation
Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman to Star in Romantic Comedy
© Y F Chin
May 20, 2009
Canadian writer, Leanne Shapton is celebrating after news that her book will be turned into a film, starring Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman. Her book, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, is a love story told through the unique perspective of an auction catalogue of the couple’s possessions acquired during their romance.
The visually-based book seems ideal for a movie adaptation but Shapton says she had no idea that the ill-fated relationship between her two characters, Lenore and Harold would turn into a romantic comedy for Paramount Pictures. She says “Producing the photo shoots and costuming and casting the characters felt a little like the process of shooting a script, but that's it. I was very focused on making it work as a book-slash-catalog and not thinking any further.”
Truman Capote Auction
Shapton credits legendary author, Truman Capote and other writers for inspiring her part-graphic novel, part-novel and part-pretend photo album. “I went to a preview and bought a catalog for an auction of Truman Capote's personal belongings in 2006. That catalog -- along with some other things like an exhibition catalog of the correspondence between Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath -- gave me the idea of telling a story in catalog form.”
Important Artifacts
At first, Shapton says she plotted out the fictional 4-year relationship and then came up with artifacts such as a stuffed squirrel, photographs, newspaper columns and salt shakers to help tell the story. “Many of the objects were mine, or found at flea markets, junk shops and yard sales. EBay was a good source too. I was broke so I couldn't spend very much money on the artifacts.”
More than 300 entries and photographs in the book itemize the intimate moments of the romance between a 40ish photographer, Harold Morris and a 20-something New York Times food columnist, Lenore Doolan. Shapton works at the Times as the art director of the op-ed page (Shapton is also the former art director at Satuday Night magazine and the Avenue Page of the National Post). She cleverly incorporates objects including heirlooms, letters and notes written on a Playbill to show the exhilaration, hopes and eventually, the heartache of a failed love affair.
Objects in Storytelling
Although Shapton doesn’t believe objects can reveal the mysteries of a relationship, she believes it’s how people feel about that particular object that can be telling. She says, “Take a boarding pass. On its own, all it reveals is evidence of a trip taken or a moment in transit. But to the bearer of that pass it might mean a defining moment of a relationship, a honeymoon, a trip where they fought so much with their girlfriend and the relationship didn't recover. If someone chooses to keep the boarding pass it tells us they are holding on -- not just to the piece of paper -- but to the memories the paper is freighted with. Everything in the book gives clues to the reader about what the characters were feeling, and in this way, they are telling.”
Pitt and Portman Production
Shapton will not be adapting her catalogue/book for the big screen, leaving it up to Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B. Natalie Portman’s production company Handsomecharlie Films will co-produce.
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. February 2009
ISBN-10: 0374175306
ISBN-13: 978-0374175306
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