Here’s something touching, from the official Stanley Kubrick Twitter account1:
Despite Stanley regretfully declining the opportunity to direct his previous novel The Night Manager, in '96 #JohnleCarre sent Kubrick a signed advanced copy of The Tailor of Panama, with a charming & hopeful message inside. John le Carré, 19 October, 1931 – 12 December, 2020. pic.twitter.com/XdHfTL5ocW
— Stanley Kubrick (@StanleyKubrick) December 14, 2020
That message, from le Carré:
“Dear Stanley – Just maybe, this time?”
Kubrick, in his reply:
“Unhappily, the problem is still pretty much as I fumbled and bumbled it out to you on the phone yesterday. Essentially: how do you tell a story it took the author 165,000 (my guess) good and necessary words to tell, with 12,000 words (about the number of words you get to say in a two hour movie, based on 150wpm speaking rate, less 30% silence and action) without flattening everybody into gingerbread men?”
There is a very interesting debate to be had about this. Let’s check out what John Gruber, avowed fan of Kubrick, thinks:
“I am reminded of the fact that Alfred Hitchcock argued that short stories make for better source material for movies than novels. (Stephen King’s oeuvre seems to prove that rule.) But today’s world of prestige TV opens new door to long, deep, mature adaptations.
Le Carré’s The Night Manager, the novel Kubrick so obviously enjoyed but argued couldn’t be made into a good two-hour film, was in fact adapted for the screen in an excellent 2015 series2 - 6 one-hour episodes - directed by Susanne Bier, written by David Farr, starring Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Debicki, and Olivia Colman.”
Hmmmm.
Recently, I watched Tinker Tailor Solider Spy. No, not the 2011 film – the extraordinarily well-regarded 1979 BBC serial. Seven episodes, 40-50 minutes each, running a total of a shade over five hours.3 And, if we really care about such things, it was shot entirely on film, and featured yer bona fide film star in the lead role.
Afterwards, I watched 1982’s Smiley’s People. Six episodes, an hour each. Both serials were recently re-released on Blu-ray, and neither serial is obscure in the slightest. And both serials also got an airing in the US.
None of this required us to wait for “today’s world of prestige TV”.
Gruber:
“Anyway, Kubrick’s Napoleon as a 10-hour drama. My god. What could have been.”
I prefer to look at what we’ve actually had. For decades.
I find “the official Stanley Kubrick Twitter account” an odd phrase to write. A bit like J. D. Salinger hosting Salinger Tonight or something. ↩
Actually, 2016. ↩
At least, the UK version does. The US version is re-edited to six episodes, runs a shade under five hours, and apparently reorders some scenes as well as trimming things a little. I’m sadly not aware of any article which discusses the differences between the two versions in detail; I’ll have a crack at writing about this one day if nobody else does. ↩