There’s finally reason to get almost tepidly excited about Paramount’s screen version of Scott Smith’s The Ruins: he’s revealed to USA Today that the novel’s malevolent foliage won’t be making like John Moschitta.
The conceit of talking vines didn’t collapse my suspension of belief on the page; I mean, I figured if I was able to buy supernatural plant life picking off vacationing twentysomethings down Mexico way, the whole mimicking voices thing wasn’t wacky enough to be a total deal breaker. Now, if the twisty, restricting, skin-dissolving little fuckers were curling up on a leather chair and sipping a tumbler of scotch whilst reciting a volume of Yeats… nah, I would’ve bought that, too.
It’s important to note that Smith has "pruned" the yakking, so if you were hoping for completely non-verbal jungle plant life, you’ll always have The Emerald Forest. Smith also had this to say about the visual depiction of the vines: "It’s kind of dried out and grayish, and as it’s fed, it becomes much more vibrant. Then, after a few days of nourishment, it begins to resemble Claude Akins."
More important than any of this: The Ruins was shot by Darius Khondji. And it’s scheduled for wide release on April 11, 2008.