“Sideways” A masterpiece road movie that continues to be loved, gaining depth like aged wine.

The story of the original work, which went through many twists and turns, until it was made into a movie.

This movie is based on a novel by author Rex Pickett. However, the history of the book is quite complicated. Looking back at his career, he was originally a director who worked on several short films, but he also worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter on " Alien³ " (1992).

After that, he tried to make a living as a novelist, but it didn't work out, and he seemed to spend his days feeling lost. In the midst of all this, he wrote the novel "Sideways," which was based on his own experiences and seemed to reveal his innermost thoughts. At the end of the 1990s, he sent the manuscript to publishers and film companies in the hope that it would catch on somewhere, but even here, he didn't get a good response.

At that time, it caught the eye of director Alexander Payne, who happened to read it through his agent, and he received an inquiry about making it into a movie.

“Sideways” (c) Photofest / Getty Images

However, film production is not something that can be achieved overnight. Payne had already worked on About Schmidt (2002), and it would be several more years before production on Sideways would begin. So, in contrast to the usual "publish → film" process, the decision to make this into a film was made first, and then the book deal was finalized. Then, perhaps hoping for sufficient buzz, Pickett's dream book finally hit the shelves of bookstores just a few months before the film was released.

What we are reminded of from these events is that whether it is the book version or the film version, it takes an incredibly long period of maturation before it is harvested and shipped. However, in a good road movie, the time and effort put into it is never wasted. There is "salvation" for every setback and every hour spent crawling on the ground. These are unshakable persuasive powers that give a sense of reality to the distance traveled by the mind and body.

What Italian and British films influenced this work?