Harrison Ford Insisted On Adding A Key Scene To The Mosquito Coast’s Screenplay
Warner Bros.
By Drew Tinnin/Dec. 1, 2022 3:29 pm EST
What was the scene that Ford wanted in?
A story about fathers
Before writing the novel, Theroux befriended an American writer named Moritz Thomsen in Ecuador who regaled the author with horror stories about his abusive father. “His stories about his father were terrifying,” Theroux told The Ringer’s Tim Greiving. “I started thinking about fathers. I thought about Jim Jones, Huck Finn’s father, my father … even I as a father.”
This is America
Apple TV+
That’s about as political as Ford has ever been in the public square, before or since. Theroux’s own nephew, writer and actor Justin Theroux (seen above, right), currently stars in the modern day version of “Mosquito Coast” on Apple TV+ that continues the story of a radical antihero for a new generation. The streaming series is facing the same problem that the original did in a way, forcing an America that’s arguably more divided and distracted than ever to take a break from their screen life to look at the uncertain world around them.
“If you have a newspaper handy, I can point out to you, from Ivan Boesky to the secret war in the White House and all the way down the line, that it’s our right and responsibility to criticize America. But also, it’s a matter of degree. This is a character who’s operatic in tone and so his criticisms are as exaggerated, overblown, but we all would hope for a more perfected America, which is not Ronald Reagan’s America.”
