Producer Scott Rudin did so well with Michael Cunningham’s novel, “The Hours,” which earned Nicole Kidman an Oscar for Best Actress at the 2003 Academy Awards that he has decided to purchased the author’s latest, “Specimen Days.”
A little bit of a different story than the depressing look at the lives of three interwoven women, “Days” is a trilogy of tales from the past, present and future, with each novella connected by 19th century poet Walt Whitman and his home turf of New York.
Variety describes the first novella in “Specimen Days” as a ghost story that takes place during the Industrial Revolution as society confronts the machine age. The second part is a contempo thriller involving a suicide bomber; the third is a sci-fi tale set 150 years in the future as New York deals with an influx of extraterrestrial refugees.
“Specimen Days” is planned for a 500,000-copy first printing in May.
