i dont think any movie can live up tho the novel. With maybe a few exceptions.
I very much disagree. The problem is not whether the medium of film is inferior to that of literature; rather, it is film-makers insistence upon adapting unsuitable subject matter to the screen. Some stories are more suited to being told in 250-500 pages; others are more suited to being told in 90-120 minutes. The fact that most novel-to-film adaptations fail to maintain the essence of the original story does not imply that film adaptations are incapable of living up to novels.
If you try repeatedly to breed a pig with a wolf, and fail, that does not imply that the pig is sterile.
they could have sold it on depp + "that guy from the dark knight" + the genuinely intriguing story
I guess I don't care if they sold it as something it's not so idiots, and people unfamiliar with Thompson, would widen the small cult audience that the film deserves. The film does not deserve a big box office pull. It is not a crowd-pleasing commercially viable project. Much less crowd-pleasing and commercially viable than Fear and Loathing. It has been destined for cult status from the beginning.
but no, they lamed out with bullshit (...) shows what they think of the audience
As a fan of Thompson, I don't see why you care. However these films get made or marketed doesn't matter. We should be grateful, if anything, that they are actually being produced. It's taken a long time to get this one off the ground. Try pitching to an investor. Try pitching something commercially viable. Even Johnny Depp with his huge celebrity draw struggled (a lot) to get The Rum Diary funded.
So they gave it a tacky catch phrase. "The head bending comedy of the year." Who cares, seriously? As for "them" not caring about the audience. Who are "they"? People investing millions of dollars in a film that has repeatedly struggled to get made, and swapped directors, and gone through dozens of script drafts; people investing millions of dollars in a film that probably won't make much of a profit, if any at all; people paying for films that deserved to be made regardless of commercial viability, simply so we can watch them?
Investors that fund projects like this one do care about the audience.
They care about the films.
That's the only reason they get made; due to the generosity of wealthy art lovers.
Somewhere along the way, from their pockets to the DVD store, a catch phrase is implemented.
Big deal.