Francis Ford Coppola has made Walter Salles an offer he can't refuse.
The Godfather mastermind has tapped the Brazilian filmmaker, best known for last year's critically-praised indie hit, The Motorcycle Diaries, to direct a long-awaited big-screen version of Jack Kerouac's Beat classic, On the Road.
Coppola will executive produce the project through his American Zoetrope shingle in association with Focus Features, the specialty film division of Universal Pictures.
"The book is inherently difficult to adapt to the screen, and we've never quite found the right combination of director and writer to do it justice until now," Coppola said in a statement.
Salles, 49, will adapt the famed novel with his writing partner, Jose Rivera. The two scored an Oscar nomination for their screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries, a dramatization of South American revolutionary "Che" Guevara's recollections of a road trip he took as a youth that influenced his political views.
On the Road shares more than a few similarities with Diaries. Published in 1957, Kerouac's thinly-fictionalized autobiography recounts the wild journeys of his alter ego, Sal Paradise, hitchhiking through 1950s America. The drug and alcohol-fueled stream of consciousness tales eventually gave rise to the Beat movement and influenced generations of writers.
"On the Road is a seminal book that gave voice to a whole generation?capturing its hunger for experience, unwillingness to accept imposed truths and dissatisfaction with the status quo," added Salles. "It is as modern today as it was four decades ago."
Coppola, who at one time considered taking the helm himself, has spent years trying to get On the Road off the ground since acquiring the rights in 1979. Over time, he's hired various screenwriters to take a crack at the project, but to no avail.
The latest reported attempt was in 2002 when Coppola tapped author Russell Banks to do a draft and had supposedly considered handing the reins to Phantom of the Opera director Joel Schumacher. (He must have seen Batman & Robin, however, because that idea quickly went south.)
Salles appears to be the best man for the material given his expertise at handling intimate character dramas such as his breakout international hit, Central Station. A few years later, he followed with The Motorcycle Diaries, starring Gael García Bernal as Che. Released by Focus Features, the flick grossed $16 million, making it one of the highest tallies ever for a Spanish-language film in the U.S.
Salles' other credits include 1991's Exposure, 2001's Behind the Sun, and the Jennifer Connelly thriller Dark Water, which has raked in $24 million since its release last month.