Salman Rushdie: Scenes in Slumdog Millionaire "Impossible"
The Academy has spoken. "Slumdog Millionaire," the indie film about a slum kid and his rise from poverty to wealth, is officially the Best Picture for 2009. That doesn't mean Salman Rushdie has to like it.
According to the AP, the acclaimed novelist and former resident of India criticized the adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name in front of an Atlanta audience, saying it piled "impossibility upon impossibility."
Rushdie, 61, was on the campus of Emory University to give a talk on movie adaptations of books. For the most part, he was critical of movie adaptations of The Reader and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
One scene from Slumdog in particular annoyed him. In the scene, the two main characters, Salim and Jamal, are outside the Taj Mahal, working as tour guides. That is 1,000 miles from their location in a previous scene.
The author of The Satanic Verses should know. He was born in Bombay--then Mumbai--and lived there for several years before emigrating to the United Kingdom.
The lecture is part of Rushdie's tenure as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the university.
In addition, the university recently announced a symposium with Mr. Rushdie, playright Edward Albee and several others, which will examine the humanities from various points of view. The symposium will take place March 17, and will feature talks by Rushdie, Albee, and appearances by actors Brenda Bynum and Robert Shaw Smith.
