Read This: The letter from a school librarian that’s responsible for Francis Ford Coppola directing The Outsiders
The Internet is full of interesting things to read outside of The A.V. Club—no, really! In our periodic Read This posts, we point you toward interesting or noteworthy pieces that caught our eye.
Last week, Letters Of Note compiled a series of correspondences from 1980 between an elementary school librarian and a Fred Roos, a hotshot Hollywood producer. Jo Ellen Misakian, the librarian, reached out to Francis Ford Coppola suggesting he adapt her school’s favorite book, The Outsiders. Shockingly, Misakian received a response from Roos that Letters Of Note wisely qualifies as “cautiously optimistic.” The letters chronicle the pitching process, and lead up to Coppola actually directing the film, keeping the school children updated along the way with a bevy of behind-the-scenes production notes.
It’s a very neat story that demonstrates the power of the organized fan’s opinion in the brutal Hollywood industry, which couldn’t possibly be relevant to anything else happening this week… [Via Letters Of Note]