Sharp Objects

Mrs. read Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects back in May and reviewed it here.  I won’t repeat the plot description from her review, but just quickly state that it was a pretty good thriller.  Not quite at the same level of Gone Girl, but Sharp Objects was Flynn’s debut novel and so it’s no surprise that it’s not as polished.  I didn’t think many of the characters were very sympathetic and I never understood Camille or the cutting thing, but that’s just me.  But it kept me turning the pages and was a fine start to Gillian Flynn’s career as a novelist and worth the read if you like her other works.
 
It’s also worth pointing out that Flynn is doing quite well for herself these days, with three popular novels (even if the first two only became popular after the success of Gone Girl), and now two of those novels being turned into films.  Which leads me to the casting for Gone Girl.  Mrs. and I had discussed who might play the leads, with the idea that in the book Amy was older than pretty boy Nick and that was one of the reasons for her insecurity.  So we had surmised that maybe it would work to have January Jones opposite Ryan Gosling or something along those lines.  So of course instead they cast Rosamund Pike (I didn’t know her before the casting) opposite . . . well of course Ben Affleck (he's everywhere!), a man seven years her senior.  Of course in Hollywood, having a man only seven years older than his screen wife may be the equivalent of the woman being older.  And for the record I’m sure Affleck will be fine.  I’m not whining about him in particular, like the idiots having a coronary over his Batman casting (seriously, settle down super hero nerds).  It was just a different direction that I had envisioned.

And finally, not only is Gone Girl (the movie) set to be released sometime in 2015, but as mentioned above another of Flynn’s books is being filmed as we speak, with Dark Places (we haven’t read) being scheduled for a late 2014 release.  I only found this out when I read that Christina Hendricks from Mad Men was cast in a supporting role.  Is someone working to get Sharp Objects into pre-production?  Not too late for three movies in three years. 
 
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