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Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:48 AM UTC

55 years later, ‘On the Road’ is finally a movie

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Topics: From the Wires,

55 years later, 'On the Road' is finally a movieduring a photo call for On the Road at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)(Credit: Lionel Cironneau)

CANNES, France (AP) — Fifty-five years after its publication, Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” finally burned on the big screen, making its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Walter Salles’ adaptation is the first film production of the classic 1957 novel, which everyone from Marlon Brando to Jean-Luc Godard has circled over the last six decades. The film premiered Wednesday on the French Riviera, far away from the American roads crisscrossed by the book’s Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.

“You have to reread it to make it live again,” said Viggo Mortensen, who plays the William S. Burroughs character in the film.

Salles said he covered nearly 100,000 kilometers (more than 62,000 miles) making the film, which he preceded by spending five years researching an as-yet-unreleased documentary.

More Jake Coyle.

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