The Rum Diary Back-Story Episode 10

In the final episode of The Rum Diary Back-Story Hunter makes a rare appearance reading the book’s Prologue – “San Juan, Winter of 1958.” Others constantly read his work to him in the kitchen of Owl Farm, but Hunter rarely recited his own work out loud. In this case, he was trying to impress a group of Producers, and one particular movie star, who had come to talk about making a movie of the book. The star was not Johnny Depp, but instead Josh Hartnett who at that point – in the summer of 2002 – was slated to play the character Yeamon from the book. Hunter and Josh bonded well, but in the end Yeamon was written out of the script by Bruce Robinson. Fans will debate for years whether that was a good choice or not. Hunter had split himself into two characters in the book, and while it was an interesting literary choice, it made for a cinematic conundrum. Despite the continuing struggle to get the movie made – four years had passed since the publication of the book when I shot this scene – Hunter was fiercely proud of his writing and gave the prologue the best read I ever heard from him.