Though it’s common for a book to be updated to the present day when it’s turned into a film, you can’t find too many examples of the opposite. But when it came to adapting Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel Motherless Brooklyn for the screen, Edward Norton, who served as writer, director, producer and actor on the film, transposed the contemporary setting to 1957 New York City in order to deliver the full impact of its hardboiled, noir-inspired prose. Joining Norton at the Academy to reveal how the thriller was created were actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw and composer Daniel Pemberton.
Norton explains that the adaptation process also drew inspiration from another novel, Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, about New York City planner Robert Moses, whom Norton describes as “this shadowy, dark, Darth Vader–like figure; it still shocks me the degree to which that history is hidden. Caro’s book is obviously kind of the definitive look at him. Jonathan’s novel is about Lionel [a private detective who has Tourette’s] and the orphans working for [Frank] Minna, but it takes place in the ’90s. It’s a character study. It’s this beautiful portrait of this guy in his mind and everything. Not to get too into the weeds, but it has a very surreal sort of meta ’50s kind of a quality to it. It has a Chandler kind of a feeling to it. We felt that it was easier to play it straight if we actually set it in the ’50s. We didn’t want it to be ironic, and we didn’t want Lionel to be like a running gag. The ’50s felt more true to the tone of the book. Then that let us open up into a wider sort of historical canvas in a way.”
Mbatha-Raw’s character, Laura, was also created exclusively for the film.“My first introduction to this whole world was Edward’s script,” she says. “I normally love to do my research and go back and look to the book. I did look at the book, but obviously there was nothing of my character there, but that was kind of liberating in a sense because the script
was so rich. The screenplay, the dialogue, all of these characters are so sort of beautifully drawn from Lionel’s perspective. Then it was, as I say, a nice opportunity for me to research New York in the period. I’d never been to Harlem before I researched this film, which was a treat. I’ve always loved jazz and a chance for me to research the world in which Laura comes from in the jazz era and that music was really fun for me as well.”
Several real figures had an influence on the script including Norton’s own grandfather, James Rouse, “sort of the anti–Robert Moses. He was a very celebrated humanist, progressive urban planner, philosopher and developer. I worked for him in affordable housing in New York when I first moved to New York and doing affordable housing development. Willem [Dafoe]’s character says a lot of things that my grandfather used to say in speeches. My grandfather’s ethos comes through Paul very strongly.”
The musical direction for the film came from Norton’s idea to “make a big New York noir period piece like L.A. Confidential, but imagine Rain Man at the center of it.… I want to mash up Radiohead and bop jazz from the ’50s.” Pemberton notes that at his first meeting with Norton, the title the director threw at him was none other than Chariots of Fire, whose score was composed by Vangelis. “There's a period film and someone has made that choice to put a contemporary synthesizer score in it, and it’s genius!” Pemberton explains. “It means like no one in this room can ever think of anyone running in slow motion without hearing that thing.” The end result in Motherless Brooklyn is an audacious musical tapestry with contributions from Wynton Marsalis and Thom Yorke, with the song by the latter arranged in various guises including one Norton describes “as if played by Miles Davis, which I think some people catch and some people don’t catch. But it has a nice subliminal effect I think.”
Ultimately, having Norton wear so many hats on the film proved to have benefits for the other artists involved. “Obviously Edward’s an actor first and when you’re playing the scene, you do sort of forget that you’re working with your director,” Mbatha-Raw reveals. “You’re just two actors. But for me, I mean it was amazing. It really made it quite an
intimate experience because obviously there’s not 101 conversations, there’s not many cooks. You are able to kind of go to one person for many questions and there is one vision and it’s very pure in a sense in terms of the vision.” It also helped Norton focus on his own spin on film noir brought into the 21st century because, as he says, “Noir cinema has always said, ‘Hey, there’s a shadow narrative that’s going on that if we fail to pay attention to it, it’s going to cost us or damage is going to get done.’ I think that’s very healthy. … Films can play a part in that reminder that we have to look out for ourselves and each other in the face of dark things going on.”
Watch the full discussion:
