美国国家公共电台 NPR Bookseller's Foray Into Hollywood Is A Dickens Of A Tale

 

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Among the many movies opening for the holidays is one with a new take on an old story. "The Man Who Invented Christmas" starring Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer is about Charles Dickens and the creation of "A Christmas Carol." It is a distinctly literary tale, which isn't surprising since one of the film's producers is a well-known bookseller. And as NPR's Lynn Neary reports, this is his first foray into film.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE¹: Mitch Kaplan has a high profile in the book business as the owner of Books & Books in Miami and one of the founders² of the very popular Miami Book Fair. But when he made the leap from bookselling to movie making, his producing partner Paula Mazur says he was just a tad over eager.

PAULA MAZUR: I would wake up in the morning when we started working together, and in my inbox there would be, what do you think of this? This could be good for TV. How about this for a feature? I think this would attract a top director - Mitch kind of shooting stuff out to me.

NEARY: Mazur says it didn't take long to see that Kaplan has good instincts for books that could make good movies. And with his connections in publishing, it was easy to get an inside track on new releases. But Kaplan soon learned you can't always get what you want.

MITCH KAPLAN: Very early on, I was given a galley³ of a book. And I read it, and I fell in love with it on the plane. And I gave it to - at my time, they were 12 years old - twins and they both fell in love with it. And I started chasing the agent. And Paula did, too. And we thought this would make, you know, a great film. And of course it was "The Hunger Games."

NEARY: Which of course went on to become both a blockbuster book and film series way out of Mazur and Kaplan's league. "The Man Who Invented Christmas" is their first full-length feature release based on a book about a famous author. When the movie opens, Charles Dickens is trying to reconcile his newfound fame with a massive case of writer's block. And, says Mazur, he's running up some big debts.

MAZUR: We see him as a 31-year-old literary rock star. He was just a really big deal by the time he was 30. And when we see him, he's gotten a bigger house. He's taking everything out, and he's putting in marble and brocade and all sorts of things, spending lots of money that he doesn't have.

NEARY: Desperate to come up with a money-making idea, Dickens pitches a proposal for a Christmas book to his skeptical⁴ publishers.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS")

IAN MCNEICE: (As Chapman) Why Christmas?

DAN STEVENS: (As Charles Dickens) Well, why not?

MCNEICE: (As Chapman) Does anybody really celebrate it anymore apart from our clerk, who never misses an opportunity to take a day off with pay?

DAVID MCSAVAGE: (As Hall) More or less an opportunity for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December (laughter).

MCNEICE: (As Chapman) What we mean to say, Mr. Dickens, is - not much of market for Christmas books. What?

NEARY: Dickens' imagination starts clicking, and everywhere he goes, he finds inspiration for the book. His characters begin coming to life, dictating⁵ the way the story should go. Robert Mickelson, another producer on the film, says that's the way Dickens actually wrote.

ROBERT MICKELSON: Dickens would be upstairs in his study and take on voices of all the different characters and make these faces in the mirror and almost become the characters as he's writing. We heard that from several people, and that became sort of this jumping off point to kind of create this magical realism that we have in the movie.

NEARY: And of course, says Mitch Kaplan, one character stands out above all others.

KAPLAN: We immediately knew that we wanted to tell this story through the eyes of Dickens and also tell Dickens' backstory at the same time. And what better way to do it than to have him being led by another guide, the guide that he created, which was Scrooge?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS")

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER: (As Scrooge) If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled in his own plum pudding and buried with a stake of holly⁶ through his heart, he should.

STEVENS: (As Charles Dickens) Oh, Mr. Scrooge, you and I are going to do wonderful things together. Oh, but he was a tight-fisted hand at this grindstone, Scrooge.

NEARY: Mitch Kaplan says he's eager to bring more books to life on screen. He's not leaving bookselling behind, but he is enjoying his second career.

KAPLAN: And I feel like I'm developing a new muscle. I feel like I'm taking what I do as a bookseller, which is basically turning people onto story, and then reinterpreting it so they can have a different experience.

NEARY: As for Kaplan's partner Paula Mazur, she started off thinking a partnership⁷ between a bookseller and a film producer might be an odd thing. Now she says it seems like a great pairing. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF MYCHAEL DANNA'S "CURTAIN UP")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

3 galley   

n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇；

参考例句：

• The stewardess will get you some water from the galley.空姐会从厨房给你拿些水来。
• Visitors can also go through the large galley where crew members got their meals.游客还可以穿过船员们用餐的厨房。

4 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

5 dictating   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
• Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句

6 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

7 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。