Cult Kerouac novel set to become film
Cult novel On The Road was today taking a new journey - by becoming a film set to star Brad Pitt.
The novel, by Jack Kerouac, chronicled his travels with drifter Neal Cassady through the United States and Mexico in the immediate post-war years and was known as the defining novel of the Beat generation.
Today Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola said he would produce a film adaptation of the book based on a script by novelist Russell Banks.
The Hollywood legend had bought the rights to the book many years ago but finally ended wrangling over who would direct his film by appointing Joel Schumacher, who directed the Batman series of films.
Brad Pitt is set to play Dean Moriarty, the character based closely on Neal Cassady, while Billy Crudup, known for his parts in independent productions, will play Kerouac, Hollywood sources said.
The new film comes as interest in Kerouac and the Beat generation of the 1950s is resurgent.
Last month the original manuscript for the book sold for almost £1.8m at an auction in New York.
The 120-foot long paper roll was typed by Kerouac in a three-week marathon said to have been fuelled by coffee and drugs in April 1951 and was bought by James Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts America football team, who is set to take it on tour across America.
