"Love In the Time Of Cholera " Comes to the Screen

The first English-language adaptation of Love In the Time of Cholera, the story of a very long courtship in 1900's South America by Nobel Prize-Winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is in filming. The author had long resisted having any of his books made into movies because of his fear that Hollywood would not stay true to his material.

Independent producer Scott Steindorff wheedled the 78-year old author for more than two years to change his mind, ignoring the advice of much of Hollywood and even García Márquez's own agent in Spain, who believed that the famously cantankerous author would never sell.

His perseverance paid off. He earned the privilege of writing a $3 million check.

To guard against a sugarcoated screen version, Steindorff's Stone Village Pictures hired the sure-handed Mike Newell, who, even though he'd never been to South America, said he was accustomed "to traveling to strange places: Los Angeles."

Cast in the lead roles of Fermina and Florentino, whose courtship closely resembles the real-life saga of García Márquez's parents, are two acclaimed actors largely unknown to American audiences: Spain's Javier Bardem and Giovanna Mezzogiorno from Italy.

García Márquez succumbed to Steindorff's pressure, but he is withholding enthusiasm. He hasn't talked about the project since it was first announced two years ago, and since filming began four months ago, the author hasn't once visited the set, despite having a home and several siblings in Cartagena, the location for the movie.

Scriptwriter Ronald Harwood, who in 2003 won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The Pianist, adapted the book for the screen. Newell described comments Garcia Marquez wrote on the script sent him by the playwright as "pungent".

However, García Márquez, who tried his hand at film before becoming a best-selling author, isn't keeping himself entirely on the sidelines, either. He convinced Shakira, who hails from the nearby city of Barranquilla, to provide three songs for the film.

At the same time García Márquez was emptying Steindorff's pockets, he ceded for free the coveted rights to another highly cinematic novel, Of Love and Other Demons, to a first-time feature-length director from Costa Rica whom he met at a workshop in Cuba.

Production of Hilda Hidalgo's low-budget Spanish-language film will begin next year in Cartagena.

We have both Love in the Time of Cholera and Of Love and Other Demons in the Spanish language hardcover version.

JWilbooks

From the Houston Chronicle, based on an article by Joshua Goodman in the Associated Press.