Well as of this writing, this headline isn’t quite yet true—it’s more of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is true that there is an excellent screenplay adaptation of Jack London’s 1909 novel slowly getting some positive attention in Hollywood and New York. Martin Eden is a great story that mirrors much of London’s own life and times as an uneducated sailor, turned famous writer. For many years I thought that somebody should’ve made this great novel into a film. Now that somebody has finally written a very good…No, great screenplay exactly 100 years since the novel was published, I think the time is ripe to bring this story to life on the big screen. How do I know the screenplay is great? Well, speaking objectively, this script has placed in 4 major screenwriting competitions. Martin Eden took 2nd place in the Inkwell Opportunity 2009 screenwriting competition, as well as being judged a finalist in Scriptapalooza, Fresh Voices and Sundance Film Festival’s top 100 in the Table Read My Screenplay competition.
The story is about love,
obsession, ambition, social issues, self-improvement, sacrifice, success,
charity, disillusionment and deep depression. This story interweaves all of the elements
that touch every human soul in one way or another. The story of Martin Eden is
set in San Francisco in the early 1900’s.
This was a time when class distinction was most prevalent in American
society—the bourgeois wealthy, whom chased to great extent, the Victorian
affectations, and the oppressed working class, where the sparks of rebellion
were quickly being fanned-to-flame. Eden is a young uneducated and impoverished sailor from the latter
class, who gets a taste of the seemingly better life of the wealthy. It all
begins when he falls hopelessly in love with Ruth Morse, a young socialite who embodies
everything the wealthy upper class can afford.
Eden makes his decision to abandon the life of the sea, educate himself,
learn proper etiquette, dress the part of a man of distinction and become a
published writer.
Eden’s relentless pursuit of
this goal for the attention, and hopefully the eventual hand of Ruth in
marriage becomes his only obsession.
Ruth helps Martin pursue his dream, at the great disapproval of her
controlling mother. All through his
improvement training, Martin takes up writing day and night, and very much like
his creator, London himself, after years of literary rejection, finally gets
some recognition. Eventually he loses
the girl; rather she loses faith in him. Eden later has works published,
becomes famous, takes up with socialists and anarchists, gets fame, is
disillusioned by the life of the wealthy, gives his money away to his less
privileged friends and family and… well, I don’t want to give it all away. I will tell you that this does not end on a
good note though…
But I urge you to read the
book…or wait for the film. Once this great screenplay is purchased and produced
by some brilliant visionary it will be a certain hit, not only here in the U.S.
but this is a sure bet for international attention as London’s book is even
today very popular throughout Europe and other parts of the world. And why am I so hopeful and confident about
this script? Because I, Jim Farina, am
the proud author.
