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Ethan Hawke will be a slacker dad in Ten Thousand Saints

Check out the latest tweet from Eleanor Henderson; proof positive the film adaptation based on Ten Thousand Saints is underway! 


As we talked about last week, the Ten Thousand Saints cast includes Asa Butterfield (Jude) and Hailee Steinfeld (Eliza) who worked most recently together in Ender's Game.  Yesterday, along with the Oscar nominations, came the news that Ethan Hawke is also onboard.  Hawke, along with Julia Delpy and director Richard Linklater received an Oscar nomination for their Before Midnight screenplay. And last night at the Critics Choice Awards (see all the results at The Hollywood Reporter), the trio received the Louis XIII Genius award for their Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight trilogy.

And speaking of 'genius' the casting of Hawke is just that. I'm about a third of the way through the book and am mesmerized by Henderson's characters and the sharp sense she's created of New York in the 1980's. Hawke is going to play dad to Butterfield's Jude Keffy-Horn, the 16 year old pot-smoking, chemical-huffing kid who goes into a deep depression when his BFF Teddy dies. It's not clear if he's overdosed or was just so high he collapsed in the snow, unable to drag himself out of the freezing cold, while Jude barely survives. Either way Jude is lost and feeling helpless, his mother, Harriet, sends him from their Vermont home to New York City to live under his father's care. The trouble is Jude's dad, Lester, not only smokes a lot of dope himself, he grows and deals it for a living. While Jude's mother may not want Jude smoking dope, Lester's attitude is that at sixteen
"- he's going to find some fruit if he wants it, no matter how much Mommy and Daddy say no...."
so naturally, 
"So I can't tell my kid not to smoke reefer," Les said. "But I can tell him not to smoke other people's reefer." One of his slippers was dangling from a white, veiny foot. "My stuffs safe. It's robust. It's cut with nothing but love. And it won't get you arrested or dead." 
Nothing but love, baby. Nothing but love.  While he may have an arguable point, Les is not exactly the kind of role model most of us would wish for our sons. He not only gives Jude lots of freedom and few rules, he sees no problem with sharing a joint with his son to start the day. 'Slacker dad' would be an understatement. Hawke is just magnificent, perfect casting. His laid back aura and slightly bad boy vibe matches the carefree and careless Lester to a t. 

Ten Thousand Saints is currently slated for a 2015 release but I don't know; husband and wife helmers Sharon Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini should be finished principal photography by late spring; depending on post-production, it seems entirely possible to have the film finished in time for an end of year award qualifying run. And from what I've read so far, the piercing material warrants that kind of attention. Have you read the book?  Care to agree or disagree?

Source: IMDB