With the release of Motherless Brooklyn this week, Edward Norton will finally see the realization of a project he’s been trying to make happen most of his career. After an auspicious start with an Oscar nomination for his first film role in the mystery drama Primal Fear, and a second nod to follow two years later with American History X, Norton hatched a plan to write, direct, and star in an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s then-new novel—a literary mystery narrated by one Lionel Essrog, a Tourette’s Syndrome sufferer trying to solve the murder of his mentor.
But the project hit various delays, and Norton’s career continued to flourish: He spent the next couple of decades acting in movies from heavyweights like Spike Lee, Ridley Scott, Alejandro Iñárritu, and Wes Anderson, with whom Norton has collaborated three times.
On Friday, his long-gestating Motherless Brooklyn at last arrives. In addition to writing and directing, Norton plays the lead role of Lionel, with support from a blue-chip cast that includes Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Leslie Mann, Cherry Jones, and Bobby Cannavale.
But Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn is an atypical adaptation: While the novel was set in the present day, Norton has—with Lethem’s blessing—moved the story back in time to the mid-1950s and thrown out most of Lethem’s plot. In its place he has woven a new mystery steeped in real-life New York City history, and featuring Baldwin as malefactor “Moses Randolph”—a character based on the land developer Robert Moses, the divisive “master builder” who acquired vast power over public funds in New York and massive influence over the city’s infrastructure—at one point he held 12 public offices simultaneously, despite having never won a single election.
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/edward-norton-why-he-placed-motherless-brooklyn-robert-moses-new-york-180973429/#X4PQdHlDKRssjPMS.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter