The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Forster Film (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) [Paperback]

David Benioff (Author), Khaled Hosseini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2008 | Series: Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks

With more than 120 photos in full color and the complete screenplay, the story behind the making of the movie based on the beloved bestselling novel directed by Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, and Stranger Than Fiction).

Based on one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, The Kite Runner is a profoundly emotional tale of friendship, family, devastating mistakes, and redeeming love. In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amirand Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. One boy's fearful act of betrayal will mark their lives forever and set in motion an epic quest for redemption. Now, after 20 years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's iron-fisted rule to face the secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right. This universal human story speaks to anyone who has every yearned for a second chance to make a change and find forgiveness.

This beautifully designed pictorial book includes the complete screenplay, highlighted by exquisite color photographs, behind-the-scenes stories about the production, the locations (the western Chinese desert that borders Afghanistan), the casting of the globally diverse cast and crew, and commentaries by novelist Khaled Hosseini and director Marc Forster.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marc Forster is the Golden Globe-nominated director of Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, and Stranger Than Fiction. He will direct the next James Bond film. David Benioff, the screenwriter, also wrote the screenplays for Troy, Stay, and 25th Hour, which was based on his novel. Khaled Hosseini is the author of the bestselling novels The Kite Runner (2003) and A Thousand Splendid Suns(2007). Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the son of a diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, he lives in northern California, where he is a physician.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Newmarket Press (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557048010
• ISBN-13: 978-1557048011
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,319,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please read the book first!, April 16, 2008

By 

Lisa Brandt (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Forster Film (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful film. Still, I would strongly recommend that you read the book first. Like the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" movies, this film is faithful to the book, and very evocative of it. If you have read the book, watching the movie is like remembering something you already love. Watching the movie first is fine also, but you lose some of the depth, the explanations of why things are important, the backgrounds.

For those who HAVE read the book, I say this: Don't be hesitant about watching the movie. It will not spoil the magic of the book, and it is not too graphic to allow its positive side to shine. At first, after reading the all-English book, I found the Dari/Farsi speakers with English subtitles to be off-putting, but I quickly got over it. The realism of having people speak their own languages quickly becomes enchanting.

This movie presents a part of the soul-wrenching history of Afghanistan. If you are not familiar with that history, this movie is an excellent if bittersweet recounting of parts of it. It will make you laugh and cry while educating you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A touching and heartwarming film looked at from another angle, May 4, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Forster Film (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) (Paperback)

Khaled Hosselini delivers us to his experiences of watching his novel The Kite Runner coming to life in "The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Foster Film". A touching and heartwarming film looked at from another angle, this is a full on behind the scenes look on the film, detailing every process of creating the film, with over one hundred color photos from the border of western China where the movie was shot, along with the full screenplay for the film. Highly recommended for lovers of the movie and for anyone who wants a behind the scenes look at the movie- also for community library film collections.

5.0 out of 5 stars I want my old life back, December 21, 2008

By 

Rudolph Ten-pow (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Forster Film (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) (Paperback)

I had resisted the hoopla surrounding the publication of The Kite Runner and the subsequent release of the movie. But the book was thrust on me as a birthday gift with an injunction to put it at the top of my reading list. I recall reading it in two or three sittings and still remember the rapt attention of my two young adult daughters as I later recounted the story to them. My wife, on the other hand, said the story was too painful and she couldn't bear to read it. Simply put, Khaled Hosseini has written a masterpiece. His story is a powerful one narrated with total verisimilitude and with the sure voice of a master raconteur, not the debutant he was at the time. The frustration I felt at the flaws and weaknesses in the narrator's character was overcome in the end by the slow realization that flawed is how we humans are. My only enduring disappointment was in discovering after finishing the novel that the author's own comfortable childhood was worlds removed from the one so realistically depicted in The Kite Runner.