Surprising news broke today that John Logan (Penny Dreadful) has successfully won a behind the scenes battle to adapt the best-selling memoir "Just Kids" as a limited series for Showtime. Why is the news surprising? Well, right here at The Film Experience, as you may recall, Patti Smith was horrified by the idea of this happening in our 2014 interview.
Our exchange went like this...
She appears to have had quite a change of heart as she was emphatic on this point when we spoke and she is still very much among the living!
So since she's changed her mind, it's time for CAST THIS!
Who should play these two iconic American artists in their twenty-something years for the miniseries? You'll need actors who can play raw emotion, uninhibited sexuality and bohemian charisma (For extra credit you can also cast playwright/actor/ex-partner of Jessica Lange Sam Shepard since he was also Patti's lover in the early 1970s and Sam Wagstaff who became Robert's older lover around the same time and his devoted mentor/patron/lover until his death.)
Both Smith and Mapplethorpe were poor 21 year-old transplants to NYC in 1967 (they were the exact same age) and lived together as roommates and lovers and later, he was homosexual after all, as devoted friends until 1974. Their fates were tied together and they both became famous, she as a musician with the release of her debut album "Horses" in 1975. His fame built more gradually as the fame of photographers and artists, tends to.
Photos from the early 70s after the jump... (NSFW)
anyone know who shot these two very famous portraits... the internet never labels anything!
Photograph by Judy Linn
Robert by Judy Linn
not sure who took this one but love it
4 self portraits by Mapplethorpe in the 1970s
a 1969 portrait by Mr. Ziff
Sam Shepard with Patti in 1971
Sam Shepard again 10 years before the Jessica Lange Chapter began
Wagstaff and Maplethorpe, a powerful art world couple until their untimely deaths. Photo by Francesco Scavullo