From Film to Word: 'The Wire' Reimagined as a Dickensian Classic

November 9, 2011

By Tom Blunt

• Tweet
• Email
• Sharebar

"The Wire"/Photo: Paul Schiraldi/HBO

• Tweet
• Email
• Sharebar

• Tweet
• Email

Well that was fast … Just yesterday we reported on the troubles ‘Tower Heist’ director Brett Ratner was having with keeping his tongue in check. Almost immediately afterward, Ratner resigned from his Oscars-producing duties and fled straight into the arms of GLAAD for emergency reprogramming. At least his apology seemed heartfelt: “So many artists and craftspeople in our business are members of the LGBT community, and it pains me deeply that I may have hurt them. I should have known this all along, but at least I know it now: words do matter.”

Speaking of directors run amok, Sylvester Stallone has unleashed chaos upon the world … in pen form! Why has the Italian company Montagrappa hired the “Rambo” star and “Rocky Balboa” director to design and model this gnarly, skull- encrusted writing implement? Perhaps it’s just to keep his hands busy as a new director takes over the “Expendables” franchise.

Chaos still reigns in Gotham City as well — in Joker form. Thanks to Heath Ledger the beloved villain has a whole new generation of devotees, but are they old enough to appreciate the evolution of the Joker?

We write a lot about adaptations from page to screen, but how about screen to page? These folks have reimagined the TV show “The Wire” as a nineteenth-century Dickensian serial novel (a la The Pickwick Papers) penned by a fictional author named Horatio Bucklesby Ogden. So far I believe they’re just kidding, but maybe not for long — this sort of thing can be book-deal heaven.

Tags: Batman, Brett Ratner, Charles Dickens, Heath Ledger, Sylvester Stallone, The Joker, The Pickwick Papers, Tower Heist