Walter Salles to go back 'On the Road'

The Brazilian director of 'The Motorcycle Diaries' is to helm a screen version of the Jack Kerouac novel.

Aug  8 2005

Having traversed South America in last year's brilliant Che Guevara biopic 'The Motorcycle Diaries', Walter Salles is all set to hit the North American trail when he films Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' late next year.

Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope will produce the long-gestating project, which Salles will direct from a script by José Rivera.

First published in 1957, Kerouac's classic novel is the semi-autobiographical tale of Sal Paradise, a wild youth who sets out on the ultimate cross-country road trip.

Frequently cited as the book that kicked off the beat movement in America, Coppola has owned the movie rights since 1979, although this is the first time he's felt confident enough to make the film.

'The book is inherently difficult to adapt to the screen,' he explained, 'And we've never quite found the right combination of director and writer to do it justice until now.'

Salles, who will shoot the film on location all across the States, adds: ''On the Road' is a seminal book that gave voice to a whole generation – capturing its hunger for experience, unwillingness to accept imposed truth and dissatisfaction with the status quo.

'It is as modern today as it was four decades ago.'

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