A new movie is sure to create a surge of interest in the late Richard Yates, considered by many a writers' writer who never gained the widespread recognition he deserved. According to press accounts, DreamWorks will produce a film adaptation of Yates' 1961 novel Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who also starred together in the box office smash Titanic and directed by Winslet's husband, Oscar winning American Beauty director Sam Mendes.
The novel is considered by many to be a classic of American fiction--Time magazine named Revolutionary Road one of its all time100 best novels—as well as Yates's finest work. Set in the mid 1950s, the novel follows an artistic couple who stuggle to keep their spark despite the suffocating forces of work, domesticity and the other trappings of middle class life in a Connecticut suburb.
Yates died in 1992 and his novels and short stories had fallen largely out of public view until Vintage began reissuing them, starting with Revolutionary Road in 2000.
