- Random Hearts
Infobox_Film
name = Random Hearts
imdb_id = 0156934
producer =Martin Jurow &Marykay Powell
director =Sydney Pollack Denis L. Stewart (1st Ass't)
writer =Warren Adler (novel)Darryl Ponicsan (adaptation)Kurt Luedtke (screenplay)David Rayfiel uncredited
starring =Harrison Ford Kristin Scott Thomas
music =Dave Grusin
cinematography =Philippe Rousselot
editing =William Steinkamp
distributor =Columbia Pictures
released =October 8 ,1999
runtime = 133 min.
language = EnglishInfobox Book |
image_caption = Cover to Stonehouse edition of "Random Hearts"
name = Random Hearts
author =Warren Adler
country = USA
language = English
genre = Fiction
publisher = Stonehouse
release_date = 1984
media_type = Hardcover/Paperback/E-Text
pages = 293 pages
isbn = ISBN 0025002902 (hardcover)" Random Hearts " is a 1984 novel by American author
Warren Adler . In 1999, the novel was made into amotion picture directed bySydney Pollack and starringHarrison Ford andKristin Scott Thomas .Plot summary (novel)
Vivien Simpson, a housewife with a young son, and Edward Davis, an aide to a congressman, had never met before, but soon they would be inseparable. Their respective spouses, Orson and Lily, had been carrying on an affair for some time. The affair abruptly ended when their plane to Miami crashes moments after take off. Vivien believed her husband was off to Paris for business. Edward thought his wife was in L.A. Once the bodies are identified, the knowledge they were traveling together is imparted on Vivien and Edward.
They are consumed with curiosity, but nobody is alive to answer their questions. All that remains of the clandestine love affair is a set of nearly unidentifiable keys which neither Vivien nor Edward knows what they belong to. They center their lives around discovering what their spouses kept from them whilst finding themselves slowly becoming closer to each other.
Film adaptation
In
1999 , "Random Hearts" was adapted into a film of the same name directed bySydney Pollack and starringHarrison Ford andKristin Scott Thomas .The film adaptation loosely follows the story of the novel but many of the characters have been changed. Edward Davis is now Sergeant William 'Dutch' Van Den Broeck, a Washington DC police officer. Vivien Simpson is now Kay Chandler, a wealthy Democratic Congresswoman with a teenage daughter. They meet when their spouses, Peyton and Cullen, are killed in a plane crash and realize that they were having an affair. The story evolves around the relationship between the two surviving spouses, as the tragedy envelopes their lives impacting on his career as a police officer and her campaign for re-election to Congress.
The film was not a box office success. Budgeted at $64 million, it made $31 million in the US and another $43 million internationally.
The film was in "
development hell " for quite some years, andKevin Costner had previously been attached to project in the early 1990s.Primary cast
*
Harrison Ford : Sergeant William 'Dutch' Van Den Broeck
*Kristin Scott Thomas : Kay Chandler
*Charles S. Dutton : Alcee
*Bonnie Hunt : Wendy Judd
*Dennis Haysbert : Detective George Beaufort
*Sydney Pollack : Carl Broman
*Richard Jenkins : Truman Trainor
*Paul Guilfoyle : Dick Montoya
*Susanna Thompson : Peyton Van Den Broeck
*Peter Coyote : Cullen Chandler
*Kate Mara : Jessica Chandler
*Dylan Baker : Richard Judd
*Lynne Thigpen : Phyllis Bonaparte
*Reiko Aylesworth : Mary Claire Clark
*Edie Falco : Janice
*Alex Trebek :Jeopardy! HostExternal links
*iblist title|id=33044|title=Random Hearts
*imdb title|id=0156934|title=Random Hearts
* [http://www.warrenadler.com/title-randomhearts.shtml Warren Adler Official Website]
* [http://www.warrenadler.com/title-randomhearts-sample.shtml Read the first chapter]
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