WHAT'S UP, G?

In an incident reminiscent of my experience with Killer Swell, I read a movie review in the newspaper over the weekend that told of a hip hop update of Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. I've already done extensive background work (character biographies, six page plot treatment, and almost all of chapter 1) on my own updated version of Gatsby.

Fortunately, the differences are significant, since I wasn't sure it was even legal to update a copyrighted story without permission, so I made the basic architecture of the story the same, but all of the details and events are radically altered. For example, this movie, entitled simply G, is a hip hop story that takes place in the Hamptons and involves a music executive named Summer G. The review said there was no recreating of the identity or secret crime that funded the Gatsby character's dreams. That is, actually, quite different than mine.

In my version, the novel is set on the West Coast, in Los Angeles, in the movie business. The Tom Buchanan character is a movie producer married to the love of my Gatsby character's life. My Gatsby owns a nightclub in Hollwyood (hence, the "wild" parties) and is reconnected with his lost love when the Daisy character's cousin moves to L.A. to become an actor and moves into "Gatsby's" guest cottage. I thought that all seemed quite plausible. In addition, to echo the prohibition themes that fueled Gatsby's wealth, my character will be a kingpin in the 80s drug culture, amassing his fortune through sales of large volumes of cocaine.

To keep it interesting (and throw people off the scent of Gatsby), I was going to throw in a stalker.

After the young adult novel, I was planning to either write a series of young adult mysteries or continue with the Gatsby novel.

Either way, I will "beat on, (a) boat. . .against the current. . ."