BUG

I remember hearing great things about the show when it played off-Broadway. With the film coming out on Friday, my interest has been renewed.

How was the off-Bway production?

It's a great play and I have a very personal relation to it.

The play was definitely more comedic in many ways - showing the absurdism in what they believed. The movie seems to be more along the lines of horror.

I honestly heard that it isn't really a horror film - they just have great marketers who are calling it that. Not sure if it's true or not...but the stage show is much...calmer...in many ways.

To be fair WIll Friedkin is most famous for Exorcist (and French Connection) but he got his start making two very critically lauded and faithful films of 60s plays--Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party and The Boys in the Band. His reputation in the 80s and 90s (with films like Jade) has been kinda tarnished and now he's back to doing smaller films based on things he loved--and apparantly he was a big fan of the play.

I'm interested to see how it comes out

I'm sure that Will Friedkin has done some good work by film standards, but with all due respect, very few Hollywood film directors have the level of creative freedom that theatre writers and directors do.

If Tracy Letts had wanted to use his original idea for a screenplay instead of a play from day one and he wrote it with the same raw honesty that made the play the critical hit that it was, it never would have been produced. BUG is the type of play that was embraced and successful because it was a play. Did Letts also write the screenplay?

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I can't say I know much about the play but the film is incredible.

I'm proud to say that our theatre gave Michael Shannon his first professional acting job, back in 1991. He played the lead role of Mio in WINTERSET, and incredibly difficuot role for a teenaged actor. He told us he was 19. It wasn't until we met his parents on opening night that we learned he was really 16! He was wise to lie - we probably would have been afraid to entrust the role to a 16 year old.

If it makes you feel better Friedkin also directed in California a few years back a theatre production of another of Tracy's plays--which is how they became friends and I believe how he became involved in the film.

E

Saw the off-broadway show and really loved it. The acting was superb and the story itself was shocking! It felt so right when I read that it was being made into a film. The horror aspect of it just screamed out. Can't wait to see it!

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I agree munk. This movie was awful. Audience members were laughing throughout the entire movie at how ridiculous it was when I saw it. Definetly not worth seeing.

I saw it. Having spent a great deal of time with the play I can say I enjoyed the movie for what it was.

The play always had an absurdist factor to it that contributed to the hilarity.

It isn't supposed to be a horror movie. It's supposed to be a sci-fi psycho thriller that lets us truly laugh at the absurdity of Peter's beliefs and his actions.

The play truly is more comedy than horror. "SUPERMOTHER" is supposed to be insane and, therefore, funny. And the more intense and adamant Agnes is, the more absurd and funnier it becomes.

The play new very well what it was - and often had people laughing (and then scratching). The movie seemed to try to be a horror flick with script of comedic absurdity.

Updated On: 5/31/07 at 12:13 AM