Famed Mississippi author William Faulkner may have won the nobel prize in literature for his novels, but he also worked as a script-writer for Hollywood.
In fact, he penned the screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, which is one of my favorite movies (as confusing as it is; I like the fact that the DVD has the uncut, unreleased, less-confusing version as well as the theatrical one).
The Big Sleep is film noir, so it’s dark and moody, but Faulkner also liked comedy. His favorite TV show toward the end of his life, apparently, was Car 54 Where Are You?
So what if Faulkner had tried his hand writing comedy for Hollywood? . . . like maybe the Three Stooges?
THE RESULT MAY HAVE BEEN SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
The link is to the story that won this year’s Faux Faulkner contest.
Screenwriter David Sheffield won this year’s Faux Faulkner contest by
imagining what it would’ve been like if William Faulkner — a Nobel
laureate known for thickets of challenging (often parenthetical) prose
— had written for the Three Stooges.Faulkner’s niece, Dean Faulkner Wells, who has coordinated the parody contest for 15 years with her husband, Larry, said Sheffield’s script clearly stood out.
“What I cannot believe, from the hundreds and hundreds of entries we read, is that there could be something this fresh and this new and this funny,” she said. “This one was unique.”
Larry Wells thought “Pappy” would’ve liked seeing his highbrow style superimposed on the lowbrow Stooges.
MORE.
CHT: Southern Appeal.
ABOUT WILLIAM FAULKNER.
ABOUT THE THREE STOOGES.
