I’ve been reading The Far Side of Eden by James Conaway and A Tale of Two Valleys by Alan Duetschman—two non-fiction Napa Valley-based books where the author takes a social reporting perspective on the state of the Valley; the new money that has poured in over the last 15 years, the outsized personalities, the ego and the old guard—a segment of folks that are clinging to the life that attracted them to the Napa area over the course of the 30 years. These differing groups, with obvious human dynamism are frequently in conflict with each other.
Despite the commonalities in subject matter, these are two different books—The Far Side of Eden is a literary tome with a well-crafted narrative and A Tale of Two Valleys is more of a long form article with some juicier bits of gossipy chatter.
Somebody should option either one of these and write a screenplay.
Forget Mondovino, the documentary that took on the globalization of wine, and forget Sideways the buddy road movie with California’s Central Coast as its backdrop and adapted from a book. And, really, forget A Good Year, the movie based on a book by Peter Mayle.
What is my recommendation for this screenplay? It should be a mockumentary ala the movies that Christopher Guest has been doing—This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and the film currently in theatres, For Your Consideration.
These mockumentary movies are all filmed in a faux-documentary style in deadpan parody style, with hilarious results.
All of Guest’s movies mine the territory of marginally talented people fanatical about a niche of interest and on the cusp of some notoriety—the audience, comically, gets to enjoy the ensuing schandefreude.
In Waiting for Guffman, for example, a local theatre troupe in the Midwest puts together a show for their towns’ sesquicentennial and the troupe director, Corky St. Clair, indicates that a Broadway critic is going to view the show and a good review could take the actors all the way to Broadway.
Imagine the comedic territory that is unexplored for a mockumentary in the wine industry—wealthy titan of business from an unglamorous business with more money than palate and his impeccably groomed and much younger wife moves to Napa to enjoy the good life. Their attempts at society and community integration while developing a winery and their interaction with non-Anglo help and zoning officials is set against the backdrop of conspicuous consumption and a new circle of friends with lifestyle, but very little else in common. Meanwhile, a media industry hell-bent on canonizing the glamorous side of an otherwise agricultural life plays the foil as a Parker-like figure is sent up as the critic that could make the husband-wife team FAMOUS.
Pure comedy gold for whoever wants to make the next wine related movie—a parody of the excesses, foibles, and interplay between man, the classes and the land in the wine industry.