While audiences have never really flocked to movies based on the famed post-war writers known as the Beat Generation, their members remain popular subjects for filmmakers looking to explore the American literary renaissance of the 1950s. Even with Kristen Stewart flaunting around half-dressed, last year's long-awaited adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road was totally ignored, and the same goes for James Franco's turn as poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl. But if there's one film that may defy the trend it's Kill Your Darlings, which boasts an attention grabbing cast led by Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Ben Foster, Jack Huston, and Elizabeth Olsen.
A brief and abruptly cut off teaser has been released, along with a handful of new pics, which do a pretty good showing that this won't be just another boring biopic. Radcliffe takes on the role of Ginsberg, who is just learning to find his narrative voice while dealing with his sexuality, and he gets a confidence boost from the commanding Lucien Carr (DeHaan). Ben Foster is William Burroughs with Jack Huston as Kerouac, and the story centers on the event that bonded them as a group, when they are all arrested for the murder of David Kammerer, played by Dexter star Michael C. Hall.
I caught the film at Sundance and enjoyed it greatly as a compelling tale of the Beats that we don't often hear about, even if it wasn't especially revelatory about the most influential writers of the 20th century. Kill Your Darlings open on October 18th.
