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Under discussion:

A Prairie Home Companion  (2006)

Garrison Keillor’s sleepy-voiced radio monologues from the A Prairie Home Companion radio show might be the only way you know the native Minnesotan, but he’s also an author of more than 17 books. He’s published numerous short stories and poems since being published in the New Yorker in 1970, he hosts A Writer’s Almanac daily on NPR stations around the country, and posts regularly to his blog on the Prairie Home website. He’s also a daily columnist at Salon.com, which makes you wonder how he finds time for the rest of his life.

But despite all the books he’s written, Keillor hasn’t had anything made into a movie. Robert Altman directed a fictional feature film version of A Prairie Home Companion, but to a Keillor fan it came off as more of a parody of the radio show than anything else. So where are the movies? Here’s a guide to the five Keillor books I’d really like to see on the big screen.

WLT: A Radio Romance

For some reason I’ve always been fascinated with old time radio shows. I have hours and hours of The Jack Benny Show on my computer, and I love the way they used to perform everything live, complete with a sound effects man to provide all the noises. Which is basically what A Prairie Home Companion is like. Keillor must be in love with that world as well, since WLT is about a radio station (originally set up to advertise sandwiches in a restaurant) that puts on dramas, comedies, reports the news, and covers sports in the 1920s/1930s. It’s full of broad comedy, but the ensemble cast and goofy situations are oddly charming. Think WKRP in Cincinatti during the Great Depression.

The Book of Guys

This is a book aimed squarely at middle aged men, and it seems perfect for a movie adaptation. After all, women get movies like Steel Magnolias and First Wives Club. But where are the movies about middle aged guys facing the reality of their lives? And if you say Wild Hogs, I will personally track you down and haunt your dreams. It can probably be argued that most movies are perfect for men of that age, but this book is filled with stories about men who are just trying to live normal lives, and learn how to deal with old age and women along the way. It’s often hilarious, plenty times poignant, and doesn’t get preachy or treacly.

Lake Wobegon Days

This is the one that started it all, and Keillor has now published seven Wobegon book, creating an entire wealth of information about a fictional town in Minnesota, complete with a huge cast of characters. It even landed him on the cover of Time in 1985, and that was just after the first book was published. The fact that it became such a runaway hit must mean that there a nostalgic yearning hidden in all of us that wants to turn to a simpler life and time. When I first started listening the “The News From Lake Wobegon” on Keillor’s radion show, I thought that it was something my grandparents would have been interested in. Then, somehow, it stuck, and I couldn’t get enough of it. This was when I was a college student living in Austin, spending my spare time partying and trying to see how much I could drink in one evening, which is quite a juxtaposition.

Happy To Be Here

This was actually the first book of Keillor’s that I ever read. I think I found it at a used bookstore in Texas, and recognized his name from the radio show. I didn’t want to be one of the bandwagoneers of Wobegon, so I avoided those books. Happy To Be Here is a collection of Keillor’s short form writing, but it’s full of gems like a WLT short story, “Jack Schmidt: Arts Administrator” which is a comic detective noir story about a government employee, and “The Drunkard’s Sunday.” A good writer could string most of these 29 short pieces into a funny script that focuses on the humor that exists in banal everyday life. The writing is as dry as you’ll encounter in The Onion, but it came out in 1982. Contrary to popular blogosphere belief systems, sarcasm did indeed exist before the internets were switched on.

Lake Wobegon Summer 1956

Keillor left Lake Wobegon alone from 1989 until 1997 when he published Wobegon Boy, finally returning to the fictional city and its denizens. Although half of Wobegon Boy takes place in New York City, where the title character moves to after landing a job with National Public Radio. He returned to Wobegon again four years later with Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, which follows poor teenage Gary as he stumbles his way through a summer in Lake Wobegon. There’s a scene with his cousin Kate (who he has a giant crush on) in a bathroom stall that manages to cross a few lines while remaining funny. Think The Wonder Years, but set in the 1950s, and a little raunchier. That’s right, the guy who pushes Sleep Number Beds can be pretty raunchy from time to time, and he has quite a talent for writing about sex. Who knew?

Sundance announced the lineups for their four non-competitive programs (Premieres, Spectrum, Frontiers and Midnight) this afternoon. Full lineups can be found after the jump; here are my first-skim picks for highlights:

• Adventureland, Greg Mottola’s follow-up to Superbad (and first Sundance trip — The Daytrippers won Slamdance in 1996).
• Brooklyn’s Finest, the Antoine Fuqua film which Steven Boone stumbled upon in Brooklyn.
• The Informers, directed by Gregor Jordan and based on the Bret Easton Ellis book. God, I hope BEE is in Park City so I can ask him about his alleged Theresa Duncan/Jeremy Blake movie.
• Cannes and Toronto leftovers, including James Toback’s Tyson, Davis Guggenheim’s It Might Get Loud, and the Alec Baldwin drama Lymelife.
• Films by Spike Lee, Stanley Nelson and Robert Townsend in a (as far as I know) knew Spectrum Documentary sidebar.
• You Won’t Miss Me, directed by Ry Russo-Young (Orphans, Hannah Takes the Stairs), starring Stella Schnabel.
• The Carter, described as “An in-depth, intimate look at the artist Dwayne ‘Lil’ Wayne’ Carter Jr, proclaimed by many as the ‘greatest rapper alive.’”
• Moon, AKA Sundance Goes to Space, with Sam Rockwell.
• Rudo y Cursi, the soccer-themed re-team of Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal.
• World’s Greatest Dad, Bobcat Goldthwaite’s triumphant return to Sundance after the unjustly ignored post-bestiality rom-com Sleeping Dogs Lie. Starring Robin Williams (!)
• Dead Snow, in which Norweigan teens meet Nazi zombies.
• Spring Breakdown, a MILFs out of water comedy starring Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler and Parker Posey and co-written by Dratch.
• White Lightnin’, the first scripted feature from the VICE Magazine crew.
• O’er the Land, described as “a meditation on our national psyche and the milieu of elevated threat,” directed Deborah Stratman (cinematographer of Los Angeles Plays Itself)

Under discussion:

The Buddy Holly Story  (1978)

Coal Miner's Daughter  (1980)

The Doors  (1991)

Lady Sings the Blues  (1972)

Sweet Dreams  (1985)

What's Love Got to Do with It?  (1993)

Velvet Goldmine  (1998)

De-Lovely  (2004)

Walk the Line  (2005)

I'm Not There  (2007)

Control  (2007)

Cadillac Records  (2008)

Who would you rather hear sing Etta James’ signature tunes, the real deal or Beyonce Knowles? If you prefer the latter, then you’ll want to see Cadillac Records and even buy the film’s soundtrack, both of which feature Beyonce performing a few of James’ songs, including a nearly spot-on copy of “At Last” (listen to it here). Other actors in the film (and on the soundtrack) who do their own singing while portraying legendary music artists include Jeffrey Wright (as Muddy Waters), Mos Def (Chuck Berry) and Columbus Short (Little Walter).

It’s a strange idea to pay tribute to a singer with a biopic or ensemble music historical and then replace that singer’s voice with another, more amateur vocalist. Yet Hollywood does it all the time and, surprisingly, the new performances usually turn out pretty good. Just listen to the following nine actors and actresses who managed to do justice to the artist they were portraying.

Gary Busey as Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

Busey earned an Oscar nomination for this film, and part of the honor was likely meant for his uncanny ability to ape Holly’s singing style precisely for live sequences like the one above. The real Buddy can be heard all over the soundtrack where appropriate, but it makes sense to have raw, live-sounding numbers in actual live performance scenes, so that’s really Busey, Charles Martin Smith and Don Stroud singing and playing the music on set. It’s unfortunate that in the subsequent thirty years there have been only a few films to follow this one’s lead, but it just proves how amazing Busey’s performance truly is.

Beverly D’Angelo as Patsy Cline in Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

The real star, in terms of both acting and singing, was Sissy Spacek, but D’Angelo does an amazing job, too, as Loretta Lynn’s mentor, Patsy Cline. Compared to Spacek’s nine tracks on the film’s soundtrack, D’Angelo has four, including an excellent duet with Spacek on “Back in Baby’s Arms.” Some of them only appear in the film as playing on the radio and so didn’t even need to be performed by the actress. But they’re so perfect, it’s almost like Michael Apted put them in there just to see if anyone noticed a difference. No wonder that when Jessica Lange starred as Cline in the 1985 bio Sweet Dreams she simply lip-synched to the original tunes. How could she have done any better than this?

Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993)

While Angela Bassett lip-synched to the real Tina Turner’s voice, Fishburne made for an inconsistent soundtrack by supplying his own vocals in the part of Ike. Actually, it was necessary, because nearly all the songs in the film are new recordings, and there’s no way anyone was going to even think of bringing the real Ike in for that. Besides, some might see it as justice that his voice was almost entirely left out of the film. Fishburne received an Oscar nomination for the performance.

Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991)

If John Travolta had gotten his way, he’d have starred as Morrison in the film and even toured with The Doors in a series of promotional concerts. If Oliver Stone had gotten his first choice, the part would be played by The Cult’s Ian Astbury, who actually did end up singing for The Doors (well, really, the “The Doors of the 21st Century”) a decade later. And if Kyle MacLachlan had gotten his way, he’d have played Morrison instead of portraying Ray Manzarek in the film. But none of these people could possibly have done better than Val Kilmer, who completely owned the character (if not the true Jim, as Stone’s critics argue). In addition to bearing a slight resemblance to Morrison, the actor also sang enough like the real deal to have allegedly confused Stone and the surviving members of The Doors. So, the songs in the film are the band’s original recordings with Kilmer’s vocals substituted for Morrison’s, a process that allowed for a more accurate representation of the rock legend’s talky and unpredictable stage act. The soundtrack album claims to feature Morrison’s own voice on the songs, but Kilmer’s performance is so good that the credits could be false and we’d never know.

Kevin Kline as Cole Porter in De-Lovely (2004)

This is an especially exceptional performance because Kline limits his true singing ability to sound more like Porter, whose voice wasn’t too remarkable (the man was a composer, not a performer). The idea may not have made for Kline’s greatest recordings — though the soundtrack sold relatively well thanks to other talents like Elvis Costello and Sheryl Crow — but the portrayal would not have been true enough had Kline belted out his best. In addition to doing his own handicapped singing, in character and on set, the actor also played the piano live during filming.

Ewan McGregor as Curt Wild (aka Iggy Pop) in Velvet Goldmine (1998)

Ten years before casting six separate actors as Bob Dylan for I’m Not There, Todd Haynes had a single actor portray an amalgam of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Mick Ronson and Alice Cooper (with a little Kurt Cobain thrown in for name and appearance?). But Curt Wild is primarily Iggy, and his band, The Wylde Ratttz, are obviously modeled mostly on The Stooges, so McGregor’s crude performance counts for this list. After all, it’s basically only Stooges tunes he sings in the film (with a new tune written by ex-Stooge Ron Asheton and Mudhoney’s Mark Arm), whereas Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who sings only some of his own songs (Radiohead’s Thom Yorke sings some others) in an obvious portrayal of David Bowie, renamed Brian Slade, performs a mix of Roxy Music and other artists’ tunes (though no Bowie, who wouldn’t allow his songs to be licensed for the film).

Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line (2005)

Roger Ebert claimed to have closed his eyes during the film and sincerely believed it to be Cash’s own vocals being lip-synched by Phoenix. While the actor does a great job, though, it’s hard to think he’d allow the same kind of confusion Kilmer’s Morrison brought about. Amazing similarity, sure, but listen to Phoenix and Cash side by side and there’s definitely no mistaking them for the same. However, Phoenix does do a grand job of convincing us that he’s completely Cash, in appearance and voice, while the movie is playing. His costar, Reese Witherspoon, may have won the Oscar, but Phoenix definitely gave the better, more accurate singing performance.

Sam Riley as Ian Curtis in Control (2007)

Like the live performances in The Buddy Holly Story, those in Control were filmed live on set with the actors all playing their own instruments and Sam Riley doing his own singing. And like the earlier film, it was totally appropriate to capture such a raw-sounding band and vocalist. There were original Joy Division tunes used for non-live scenes and most of the soundtrack album features original recordings, with only one track credited to the cast, who were credited as “Joy Moviesion.”

Diana Ross as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972)

If you’re a big fan of Holiday’s voice, there’s really no accepting this substitution. Unlike some of the other artists’ voices recreated for the big screen, Holiday’s isn’t backed up by a lot of music. So, hers and Ross’ voices are barer. Yet Ross nevertheless does a worthy effort in the role and her performances of Holiday’s tunes were popular enough to make the film’s soundtrack reach #1 on the Billboard Top 200. Ross was also nominated for an Oscar.