Sapphire's latest 'too risky' for Hollywood
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Global Times / Agencies, July 19, 2011
Sapphire's first book became the unlikely Oscar-winning movie Precious, but the author isn't expecting more Hollywood gold from her follow-up novel, which features harrowing passages of sexual abuse.
Her first novel, Push, about an obese, illiterate, sexually-abused, HIV-positive Harlem teenage mother nicknamed "Precious", catapulted to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list when the film version became an unlikely success - 13 years after the book's 1996 release.
Yet Sapphire, the New York-based author born Ramona Lofton, whose shocking, graphic style has invited previous controversy, is still not compromising her story or strong language to soften up her book for Hollywood this time around.
In The Kid, Precious, the heroine which launched actress Gabourey Sidibe's career with an Oscar nomination, is killed off at the outset. Her abusive mother, Mary, the role that won Mo'Nique an Oscar for supporting actress, is also missing.
"An exploitative [film] version of The Kid, especially emphasizing his sexuality, could destroy this book," Sapphire said. "Gabourey is now 'Precious' for many hundreds of thousands of people. Mo'Nique is Mama, that's fixed. I am not ready for that to happen with this novel yet."
Sapphire said The Kid, which follows the life of Precious' son, Abdul, or "J.J." is also "riskier" material. The book includes vivid depictions of Abdul being savagely beaten in foster care, sexually abused by Catholic brothers in an orphanage and of Abdul raping a younger boy.
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