After the sad death of literary giant J.D Salinger earlier this year, it seems that Hollywood can now finally get their grubby little hands on his masterpiece The Catcher In The Rye.

Despite the interest of such giants as Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, John Cusack, Terence Malick, and countless others, Salinger famously refused to allow the film rights to his book to be sold. This was due to his disappointment with the bungled film adaptation of Ugly Wiggily In Connecticut/My Foolish Heart.

Salinger once remarked:

Since there’s an ever-looming possibility that I won’t die rich, I toy very seriously with the idea of leaving the unsold rights to my wife and daughter as a kind of insurance policy. It pleasures me no end, though, I might quickly add, to know that I won’t have to see the results of the transaction’.

If this film adaptation provides financial security for Salinger’s family, then it can’t be a bad thing in that respect. It just seems a shame that the studio execs were so quick to jump on it virtually the second that Salinger passed away.

The news doesn’t get much better. Rumoured to be in the running to play iconic anti-hero Holden Caulfield are Zac Efron, Nick Jonas, and Justin Bieber.

One has to appreciate the irony. In the novel, Caulfield is constantly stating how he finds Hollywood movies and the actors in them “phony.” One could see the selection of actors being considered for the role as a subversive, post-modern joke. But I think we’ll all agree that Hollywood just isn’t that clever.

Also, the novel’s stream of conscious nature will be virtually impossible to render onto film. It’s one of those kinds of stories that can only work as a book. To attempt to transfer it onto film would cause it to lose a lot of its message and impact. Especially with a non-entity like Bieber at the center of it all.

Let’s hope the powers that be have some sense, and leave this masterpiece well alone.