Just Drawn that Way

The New York Times' ArtsBeat blog reports that director Jonathan Demme is planning a film adaptation of Dave Eggers' book Zeitoun. The book tells the story of a man who stayed behind Katrina-ravaged New Orleans to save his home. Demme is skirting the obvious difficulty of filming a flood by making an animated version of the story.

The Times reports that Demme was inspired not only by the book but also by it's cover. "'I was staring at the book,' Mr. Demme said in a telephone interview, 'and there’s this wonderful line drawing on the cover, the character of Zeitoun in his canoe, paddling through a submerged neighborhood. And I suddenly imagined, What if we could do an animated film and visualize the experiences of the Zeitoun family and all of New Orleans?'"

Details are here.--David E