Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Melanie Benjamin's "The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb"

Melanie Benjamin's historical novels are Alice I Have Been and the recently released The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Here she shares some perspective on the difficulties of adapting the new book for the screen and names one director with the vision to just maybe pull it off:
Honestly, I’ve never been able to think of The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb in terms of a movie simply because it would be impossible to cast. The kind of dwarfism that General and Mrs. Tom Thumb had is not a kind that is common today; they were miniature people, perfectly formed. Today they would have been given human growth hormones, and while they wouldn’t be quite average-sized, they certainly would be more than three feet tall! However, I admit that sometimes I do allow myself to imagine what Tim Burton could do with this story; his Big Fish, which I love, used CGI to realistically imagine giants and Siamese Twins. I think he could do a wonderful job with Mrs. Tom Thumb.
Learn more about the book and author at Melanie Benjamin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Alice I Have Been.

The Page 69 Test: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

--Marshal Zeringue