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David McCullough's story of John Adams is coming to TV. |
By MICHAEL ZITZ
So Tom Hanks has purchased the rights to do an 11-part miniseries for HBO based on the best-selling 2001 David McCullough book "John Adams" --and he'll film it in Virginia.
Does that mean the same man who spent so much time at the White House in "Forrest Gump" will play our second president?
Hanks, who is directly descended from Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, certainly has the breeding to play a chief executive.
A great-great-great nephew of Lincoln would might seem better suited to play Adams than Gump. But Carter Hudgins, a history professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, will be hearing the Gump line "Life is like a box of chocolates" in his head if Hanks stars in "John Adams."
"The trouble with casting actors as well-known as Hanks is it's difficult to separate them from past characters they've played," Hudgins said.
And what are the chances that the Fredericksburg area might be a location for the miniseries? Could historic houses such as Fredericksburg's Kenmore and Orange County's Montpelier become locations for shooting?
The selection of locations "is at a very preliminary stage," said Mary Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Film Office in Richmond.
All that is known now is that much of the filming will be done in Colonial Williamsburg and on the campus of The College of William & Mary.
It will be the largest film project ever for the state, with an estimated economic impact of $60 million. Filming will start in the fall and continue through next April.
Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who met with Hanks in March, said in a statement, "This miniseries will help secure Virginia's reputation as a premier location for American historical film projects."
The Old Dominion beat out Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, Adams' birth state, for filming honors.
Hudgins said McCullough's "John Adams," which won the Pulitzer Prize and became a best-seller, "reinvented the art of biography of figures from our early national period."
He said the four-year-old book has "stood the test of time" in terms of interesting a mainstream audience in history.
In a 2002 interview with The Free Lance-Star, McCullough said he initially had the idea to write about Thomas Jefferson and John Adams' relationship, and, "My concern was how Adams would ever hold balance with Jefferson--Jefferson, with all his star quality and fame and importance. How could this short, stout, little, grumpy Federalist from Massachusetts hold up with the great Jefferson? I was not very long into it when I realized it might in fact be the reverse. For me, Adams was the more compelling figure to write about. That doesn't necessarily mean he was the more important figure in history."
McCullough, whose most recent book, "1776," is also a resounding success, said the thing that made Adams so irresistible was that he was so forthcoming and spirited in his letters--that he himself wrote with such total candor.
"He's a great story because he's on the move," McCullough said. "Things happen to him. He gets in trouble. He goes where nobody dares go."
John Pearce, a UMW history professor and the director at the James Monroe Museum in Fredericksburg, hopes the miniseries has a fraction of the impact the book did in stirring up popular interest in U.S. history.
Why does Adams' story have such pop appeal?
"Oh my gosh, Adams did do some important things to help us gain our republic," Pearce said.
"Of course, it helps to have the wonderful writing ability of David McCullough," Pearce said. "And then there is the whole 'Revolutionary phenomenon' of the last few years, where book after book after book has been published to considerable acclaim."
Some academicians have criticized McCullough for caring more about telling a good story than recording every detail of history exactly.
In the 2002 interview, McCullough countered: "If history isn't well-written, then it won't be read. And if it isn't read, it's gonna die.
"I love my work and I'm trying to write the kind of book that I, as a reader, would like to read," he said.
UMW's Hudgins seems to appreciate the importance of that.
"Whether you love the book or hate it, McCullough was able to turn [Adams] into a very compelling figure," he said.
But Hudgins said it remains to be seen if the miniseries will be as effective in the same way as the book.
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