I thought "The Shipping News" was an excellent film. Like any adaptation of any novel, it didn't include everything that had been in the book, but what it did, I thought it did well.

My favorite novel, whose movie rights have been sold and resold and sold again, and about which there have have many rumors about who would take the starring role, is "A Confederacy of Dunces." They still haven't even begun making a movie out of it. Maybe it's just as well; whatever Hollywood could do would probably, in the end, be a disappointment.

I believe that the current favorite to take on the daunting role of Ignatius J. Reilly is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who might well be better for the part than either John Belushi or John Goodman, or any of the many others mentioned over the years.