I am almost done with the Rum Diary, a book by Dr. HST. It is about a journalist who goes to San Juan and his experiences of living and interacting with people, the parties, the struggles, the fights, the rum.

The book is fascinating in the sense that you wonder when HST would come in the picture, but he never does. The story is a fictional story, all based on characters that HST most likely encountered during HST time in Puerto Rico.

The book was initially rejected and got buried beneath Thompson?s other projects. It was resurrected forty years later and published in 1998, and offers a glimpse into HST's youth before the hallucinogenic episodes famously chronicled in Fear and Loathing and his other books.

What is even more interesting is that the book will be used as an adapted screenplay for a movie staring Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp (The journalist), with Nick Nolte and other actors. Expected release 2006.

Also, reference my previous post on Curse of LoNo, it seems Sean Penn and HST were interested in developing that story into a movie, so maybe in the future we might see that movie also.

I would be interested in watching both movies, and as Johnny Depp has become in a sense the alter-ego of HST, I think the movies would be excellent to watch.

Purgatorian Post # 710