Come this Friday, movie theaters everywhere may see an influx of intoxicated patrons, trying vaguely to overcome the zigzagged path to the ticket booth so they can pay to see The Rum Diary; the latest film to spring from the iconic journalist and trouble maker, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. However, there may be something else waiting for them on the screen, in that theater…a sheer example of false advertising. The theatrical trailer for The Rum Diary leads potential customers by the nose into believing the ride will be jam-packed with zany antics, much like what we enjoyed in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). But then again, the glimmering shine of a massive battle axe can easily look like a water pistol after Hollywood gets their hands on it, and turns over the story to turn a profit; per usual, only time will tell. Here are things anyone planning on seeing this film should keep in mind:
Thompson originally wrote his novel The Rum Diary in 1961, well before developing the Gonzo style he’s infamous for today. The plot itself is absolutely nothing like the drug-induced hysteria and hybrid-genre his stories would turn out to be after the 1960s. No, The Rum Diary is very grim, sad and brutal, dealing with the concept of the grass always being greener on the other side. Its protagonist, Paul Kemp (portrayed in film by Johnny Depp) transplants to Puerto Rico expecting his new journalism gig to be a job in Paradise, but finds it nothing short of Hell. The novel was rejected and scrapped until 1998, after Fear & Loathing gained mainstream attention; Thompson could write his own ticket then. Since 2000 a film adaptation sat in developmental limbo (twice), and eventually fell-through. Reports say Hunter was never satisfied with how Hollywood wanted to paint the piece. Two years following Thompson’s suicide {in 2005}, film producer Graham King bought all the rights to the novel, and when Johnny Depp’s personal production company, Infinitum Nihil stepped in to make the film finally in 2009, things started to get rolling for real. The script was written by Bruce Robinson – rumored to be interested in doing the film from the beginning – who found it necessary to break his more than six year sobriety to complete the script. In the end, the image they’ve posted to the screen so far, in the way of advertisement, is an utter misconception of what Dr. Thompson published on the page – what would he think? It’s hard to claim Depp, a personal friend of the Doctor, would let something slip through that he felt poorly represented Hunter’s work. Which leaves one questioning if the trailer is purposefully misleading, simply to hook all the pseudo Thompson fans who’ve never read The Rum Diary in the first place.
Who knows? Nothing can be said truthfully until the release date. The Rum Diary hits theaters on October 18th. As the good Doctor Thompson suggested here and there, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
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