Last week saw the death of one of the most popular US writers of the 20th Century: JD Salinger. His seminal novel Catcher in the Rye often marks a transitory stage of teenage readers to fans of  “literature”. Yet, there has never been a film adaptation of any of his novels. It’s not so much that they’re unfilmable, rather Salinger possessed a hatred for cinema and refused to allow even greats like Spielberg and Billy Wilder to buy the rights to his work for millions of dollars. Even when the WP Kinsella novel Showless Joe was adapted into Field of Dreams, Salinger refused to allow his character to be adapted, and instead we were treated to James Earl Jones’s Terence Mann. But now that Salinger has passed away, we can expect biopics, and even adaptations if his estate owners allow it. But first, a documentary on Salinger has been completed.

Deadline Hollywood reported that the documentary was a self-funded labour of love by screenwriter Shane Salerno. Which is quite surprising, considering Salerno wrote the script of one of the worst films of last decade, Alien Vs Predator: Requiem, as well as stinkers Shaft and Armageddon. He is, however, working with James Cameron on a new project (Avatar 2 perhaps?). Regardless of Salerno’s ability, he spent the last five years conducting dozens of interviews with friends and colleagues of Salinger, or else famous names that were inspired by the reclusive writer (including Ed Norton, Gore Vidal, John Cusack, and so on). Deadline’s review of the film is positive, and also mentions some of the topics covered, such as Salinger’s personal life, his reclusive nature, his obsession over single sentences, and most importantly, the nature of any writings he owns but did not publish over the last few decades (his last published work was in 1965).

It sounds like an exciting project, and it will no doubt be essential viewing for anyone interested in modern literature. Plus, the lack of narration was a wise choice by Salerno. No release date is set because the film hasn’t been bought by a distributor, but expect it to appear in a forthcoming film festival and profit from a  bidding war.