Daniel Radcliffe is perhaps best known for portraying the bookish Harry Potter, a popular character created by the bestselling British author J. K. Rowling.
Fresh off the set of The Woman In Black, Radcliffe has accepted a new role, one that lacks any connection to horror or fantasy. Yes, the actor is now portraying poet-activist Allen Ginsberg of the Beat generation in a film titled Kill Your Darlings.
The movie – which hits theaters in 2013 – also stars Elizabeth Olsen as Edie Parker, Ben Foster as William S. Burroughs and Dane DeHaan as Lucien Carr.
Kill Your Darlings is based on the novel And the Hippos Were Boiled in the Their Tanks, which was written by Jack Kerouac of On the Road fame and William S. Burroughs, who is perhaps best known for a slew of controversial books, including Junkie, Naked Lunch and Interzone.
Personally, I’m not surprised by the sudden resurgence of interest in Beat culture and literature. There is obviously a real longing for genuine heros and cultural icons in America – literary or otherwise – and the Beats might just fit the bill once again.
Remember, the official trailer for On the Road recently debuted, which stars Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley and Kristen Stewart, who will be portraying Jack Kerouac (aka Sal Paradise), Dean Moriarty (aka Neil Neal Cassady) and Marylou (aka Luanne Henderson).
William S. Burroughs, or Old Bull Lee will also be making in appearance in the film, along with other well known Beat characters like Jane (aka Joan Volmer) and Carlo Marx (aka Allen Ginsberg).
Its should be noted that both On the Road and Kill Your Darlings were preceded by Howl, which stars James Franco portraying a young Allen Ginsberg at the time when his magnum opus was on trial for obscenity in the city of San Francisco. Clearly, Howl will never die, as it is an immortal poem and relevant to people of all ages in just about any decade.
On The Road his theaters sometime in 2012, while Kill Your Darlings is scheduled for a 2013 release.
