"PGPearson1954" <pgpearson1954@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:20031106152908.27112.00000271@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Hunter S. Thompson's Caribbean adventures coming to the big screen
>
> Wednesday November 05, 2003
> By FRANK GRIFFITHS
> Associated Press Writer
>
> SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) It was 1959. Fired for kicking in a candy
machine at
> a small-town newspaper, Hunter S. Thompson fled to Puerto Rico, where
his
> vagrant journalist lifestyle inspired his first novel, ``The Rum
Diary.''
>
> Thompson's boozy year marked by cockfights, bowling alleys and pursuit
of
the
> governor's daughter is now being made into a movie, starring Johnny
Depp,
who
> first ****trayed the legendary cult writer in ``Fear and Loathing in Las
> Vegas''.
>
> ``I didn't know Johnny Depp could act until he played me,'' said
Thompson,
66,
> during a telephone interview from his home in Woody Creek, Colo.
>
> Puerto Rican native Benicio Del Toro makes his directing debut, and Nick
Nolte
> and Josh Hartnett co-star. Shooting is scheduled to start in December.
>
> According to Thompson, he was working at the Middletown (N.Y.) Daily
Record
> when the candy machine cheated him of a nickel. After he smashed it and
was
> fired, he moved to New York's Adirondack Mountains to begin a novel,
living off
> unemployment checks.
>
> Then a s****ts editor opening at The San Juan Star grabbed his eye.
Thompson was
> rejected by managing editor William Kennedy, who went on to win a
Pulitzer
in
> 1984 for his book ``Ironweed.'' But Kennedy predicted that Thompson
would
write
> ``the great Puerto Rican novel.''
>
> Thompson then covered cockfights on the outlying Puerto Rican island of
Vieques
> for El S****tivo, which was billed as the Caribbean's S****ts Illustrated
but
> turned out to be little more than a doomed bowling tabloid.
>
> To supplement his income, Thompson worked as a male model for Bacardi
Rum
and
> wrote freelance articles. He lived in a wooden beach shack in Loiza, a
> community of mostly Yoruba slave descendants a 25-minute drive from the
> capital.
>
> ``It was the best house on the beach,'' Thompson said. ``I would take
some
> scuba gear and pick up those big lobsters off the reef with rubber
gloves.
It
> was perfect.''
>
> He commuted to San Juan on a motorscooter to frequent El Patio de Sam, a
local
> watering hole still hopping in San Juan's colonial district. For fun, he
would
> shoot rats at the San Juan dump with a .357 Magnum.
>
> ``My only regret is that I didn't run off with the governor's
daughter,''
> Thompson said, unable to remember which daughter of former Gov. Luis
Munoz
> Marin caught his fancy. ``I still have a seashell she gave me in
Aruba.''
>
> The novel begins with re****ter Paul Kemp on an airplane bound for Puerto
Rico.
> He joins The San Juan Daily News modeled after the paper that turned
Thompson
> down in the midst of financial problems on an island aflame in political
> turmoil.
>
> Like Thompson, Kemp finds himself trying to balance his job and a cast
of
> im****ted misfit colleagues with his appetite for rum and sun.
>
> ``I was writing about what it was like to be among vagrant
journalists,''
> Thompson said, confirming that most of the book is based on reality.
>
> ``Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist,''
Thompson
> said. ``You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have
to
know
> the material you're writing about before you alter it.''
>
> The book was initially rejected by an agent and got buried beneath
Thompson's
> other projects. Resurrected 40 years later and published in 1998, it
offers a
> glimpse into Thompson's youth before the hallucinogenic episodes
famously
> chronicled in ``Fear and Loathing.''
>
> It came before the spawning of Thompson's gonzo brand of journalism
where
> fiction is, in his words, truer than any re****tage. Today Thompson, 66,
has
> written more than 10 books, writes a column for ESPN.com and is a
regular
> contributor to Rolling Stone.
>
> He plans his first visit back to Puerto Rico since those halcyon days to
act as
> consultant once shooting begins in December.
>
> ``We're going to come down and take over the island.''
>
> http://wcbs880.com/entertainment/Film-TheRumDiary-ae/resources_news_html
>
> (Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
> =========================================================
> Paul Pearson
Yeah!
http://www.amber-kaye.com/forum/viewthread.php?action=attachment&tid=434&pid=643
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