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Dalí. The True Story of the Fakes.
50Min. (2004)
Directed by: Miguel Angel Nieto
A co-production with: TVE – ARTE G.E.I.E.- AVRO
Between 1960 and 1980, Dalí signed at least 400.000 white sheets that his various secretaries sold all around the world. This is the first time that Dali’s four private managers or secretaries talk about the matter: Captain John Peter Moore, journalist Enric Sabater, photographer Robert Descharnes and aristocrat Jean Claude Du Barry.
The Dalí painting in the background is the 1962 Twist in the Studio of Velazques. With the help of Captain Moore, I sold it to the CEO of L'Oréal in Paris. (See Dalí & I pages 25 and 38-39.)
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A mere two weeks after its publication date, Dali i ja, the Serbian edition of Dali & I: The Surreal Story, came in on 9 in the national book Top-20. In writing, foreign names and surnames are spelled phonetically in Serbian. Therefore, in Serbia I am no longer "Stan Lauryssens" but "Sten Lorisen". Dalí still is "Dali" though. On the cover, Dali i ja is labeled "internacionali bestseler".
In order to promote Czech and Slovak translations, I was in Prague and Bratislava for a couple of days. In Prague, I stayed in a very nice hotel that was Prague's most popular luxury whorehouse or bordel during the communist regime. Well, Zara and Armani have taken over the party's headquarters and communism in Prague is relegated to the stuffy, tiny Museum of Communism on the first floor of a local McDonald's.
In Slovak, my title reads as Dalí & I: The (Sur)real Story, which I think is a nice twist and a great find.
Read here an interview, in Czech, as published in the highly popular DNES daily newspaper...
... and watch a dubbed live interview on Czech breakfast TV.
The jacket on the left is the Rumanian Dalí & I, to be published September 2008.
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Dalí & I in Chinese... and in Turkey
The first of two Chinese editions of Dalí & I: The Surreal Story is now on sale in Taiwan. In an e-mail, my Chinese editor tells me: "Dear Stan, We decided to go ahead with a more light-hearted cover because Taiwanese readers don't respond well to heavy and dark material. We feel that this great photo makes a very appealing cover and will draw in the most readers! Also please note that the Chinese title translates to Dali's 666 Signatures." Frankly, I think it's a great cover, though I look like a stand up comedian with the fake mustache and bulging eyes, don't I?
» Read here a nicely illustrated interview in The Guangzhou Daily, "one of the largest circulation newspapers
in
China", according to the female reporter who contacted me.
Meanwhile, online bookstore sales of the Turkish edition of Dalí & I: The Surreal Story, titled "Dali ve Ben" in Turkish, have gone from the #31 spot on the Turkish Top-100 to #21 in a matter of days.
Latest result: Dali ve ben is now on #8 in Turkey. On another bestseller list, the book is on #2 ...
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Out now: "Dali & I: The Surreal Story" by Stan Lauryssens
Thomas Dunne Books/St.Martin's Press
(spring-summer 2008)
An extraordinary memoir of fortune, fraud, and the master of modern art
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Art dealer Stan Lauryssens made millions in modern art, but he sold only one name: Salvador Dali. The surrealist painter's work was a hot commodity for the newly rich, investors, and businessmen looking to launder their black market cash. Stan didn't mind looking the other way; he just hoped the buyers would look the other way as well. The artworks he sold came from some very shady sources. And he soon discovered that the shadiest source of all was Dali himself. The more successful Stan became, the closer he got to Dali's inner circle, until he found himself living next door to the aging artist. There, while Stan hid from Interpol's detectives, he learned more about Dali's secret history, the studio of artists who produced his work, and the money-making machine that kept Dali's extravagant lifestyle afloat long after his creativity became to flounder.
Dali & I offers a behind-the-scenes view of the commerce and conspiracy that can go hand-in-hand in the art world, written by a man who has been to the top only to discover it was no different than the bottom.
STAN LAURYSSENS was an art dealer specializing in works by Salvador Dali for over a decade. After spending time in prison for the sale of bogus Dali's, he turned to writing crime fiction. He won Belgium's Hercule Poirot Award in 2002 for best crime fiction of the year. He divides his time between Antwerp and London.
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press also publishes Dan Brown, Arnaldur Indridason, Desmond Morris, Wilbur Smith and Michael Palin.
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Dali & I: The Surreal Story (US edition) was published July 8, 2008. To order from Amazon.com, click here...
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"Crass, callous, sordid and cynical—thus, utterly true to the spirit of Dalí and a certain bestseller."
---Kirkus Review
"It feels as a smooth fluid story. You do not even realize you are reading a crime novel. What Stan Lauryssens sets out to do, he does superbly well."
---Library Thing
Book reviews and other literary stuff
"A Belgian boy with easy morals and a smooth tongue, Lauryssens worked his way up from writing invented celebrity interviews to selling fake prints by Spanish surrealist master Salvador Dalí to swindling greedy suckers out of vast sums of money for fake or nonexistent works by Dalí."
---The Boston Globe
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Cillian Murphy is "Stan" in Dali & I: The Surreal Story
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cillian Murphy will be "Stan" (that's me, folks) in the upcoming Dali & I: The Surreal Story. Cillian Murphy is Irish of course, lives in London, was norminated for a Golden Globe Award and plays the villain in Batman Begins (opposite Katie Holmes). He is also in Cold Mountain (Nicole Kidman) and The Girl With the Pearl Earring (Scarlett Johansson). His starring role as an Irish revolu-
tionary helped The Wind That Shakes The Barley (Ken Loach) win the 2006 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Hollywood Reporter also informs that Dali & I: The Surreal Story is scheduled to begin shooting early 2008 on location in Spain and New York.
IESB.net had an exclusive interview with Cillian Murphy, who will star als "Stan Lauryssens" in the upcoming Dalí & I: The Surreal Story (2009). The 2-minute video interview can be viewed by clicking the image below.
Cillian Murphy has long cited Al Pacino as one of his inspirations, often mentioning a teenage viewing of Pacino in the 1973 film Scarecrow as being the first time he realized how powerful film acting could be.
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Claudia Schiffer nel film su Salvador Dalì?
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Secondo voci non ancora confermate, Claudia Schiffer potrebbe aggiungersi al cast del prossimo film di Andrew Niccol sul pittore surrealista Salvador Dalì.
La modella dovrebbe vestire i panni di Amanda Lear, amica e musa dell'artista che ha commentato così l'eventualità: "Si parla della Schiffer per il fatto che facevo la modella come lei. Ma sarà in grado di recitare?".
La Schiffer andrebbe ad aggiungersi nel cast ad Al Pacino, scelto per il ruolo del pittore, e Cillian Murphy, che interpreterà la parte di Stan Lauryssens, autore del libro da cui è tratto il film.
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[ This is what Stan has to say about the rumor: "Fashion model Claudia Schiffer as Amanda Lear in Dalí & I: The Surreal Story? Not bad, if you ask me, not bad at all, though it hasn't been confirmed yet...another website launches the rumor that Paris Hilton is considered for the Amanda Lear part. They're both party animals, that's for sure... ]
Salma Hayek = Gala?
There's a rumour on movies.com that Salma Hayek is considered for the part of Gala, Salvador Dalí's sex-addicted wife. Salma Hayek is one of Hollywood's most dazzling actresses. She was nominated for a Best Actress "Oscar" for her dramatic portrayal of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the 2002 biopic Frida.
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Al Pacino spoke to MTV News about portraying the 20th century painter
Salvador Dali in the upcoming film entitled "Dali & I: The Surreal Story"
based on my book.
"I really like that Salvador Dali idea," said Pacino of the biopic. "I
really feel that's a place I would like to get myself around to playing."
The movie will reunite Pacino with his "S1m0ne" director Andrew Niccol. "I
read Andrew Niccol's script. It's a terrific script. That's a role I've been
wanting to play for a while, and I think it's coming," explained Pacino.
Salvador Dali of course is best known for his wiry antenna-like moustache
and for his painting "The Persistence of Memory," which features several
melting clocks on the beach.
Foreign rights to my "Dali & I" book have now been sold to 22 countries,
among them China, Russia, Japan, Brazil... Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's
Press in New York acquired World English Rights.
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Hollywood trade papers The Hollywood Reporter and Variety as well as The New York Times confirm that Al Pacino has signed to play Salvador Dali in Dali & I: The Surreal Story, an upcoming biopic based on my autobiographical book Dali & I.
"One of the more mouthwatering casting developments of recent times," The Guardian writes on its Guardian Unlimited website.
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A-list director Andrew Niccol is to direct. The movie will cover the life of Dalí through the eyes of a character named " Stan Lauryssens". If you don't know: I was an art dealer on the run for Interpol when I fled to Spain in the early-80's and became Salvador Dalí''s only neighbour on the Black Mountain between Figueres and Cadaquès.
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Andrew Niccol is the filmmaker behind last year's Lord
of War starring Nicolas Cage. He also wrote Steven Spielberg's The Terminal as well as The Truman Show which garnered him an
Academy Award 'Oscar' nomination for best original screenplay.
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Andrew Niccol films as script writer and director
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Eight Times Academy Award Nominee Al Pacino
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1973
The Godfather I
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1974
Serpico
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1975
The Godfather Part II
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1976
Dog Day Afternoon
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1980
And Justice For all
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1991
Dick Tracy
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1991
Glengarry Glen Ross
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1993
Scent of a woman
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In October 1997, Al Pacino was ranked No 4 in The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time-list and was later voted the Number 1 greatest movie star of all time in a Channel 4 (United Kingdom) poll.
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Pacino? No! Stan? Yes!
The actor impersonating Salvador Dali in the March issue of Vanity Fair is NOT Al Pacino but Dustin Hoffman in a 1996 photograph. "But Stan (left) is Stan, no doubt about that."
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Top 10 Producers to Watch
I had a typescript that became a book. John Salvati from New York turned it into a film script and sold his script to Room 9 Entertainment in Hollywood. "My script is my own interpretation of Stan's story," Salvati said in a telephone interview from New York. "I see it as a sexy cross between Basquiat and GoodFellas." Salvati also wrote the 2002 crime thriller One Way Out starring James Belushi as Harry Woltz, a homicide cop with a gambling problem.
Room 9 Entertainment was formed in December 2002 by entrepreneur David Sacks and his partners from PayPal, Inc., the online money transfer service that Sacks helped create and lead as COO to a US$ 1.5 billion acquisition by eBay Inc. in October 2002. The company has an equity fund to develop, produce and finance high quality independent films. Its first feature film, Thank You For Smoking, which stars Aaron Eckhart and Katie Holmes, was nominated for Best Picture at the 2007 Golden Globes. Variety named David Sacks one of the year's "Top 10 Producers to Watch". He will produce Dali & I: The Surreal Story with Daniel Brunt and Michael R. Newman.
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Salvador Dalí meets James Bond?
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Responding to rumours that claimed Al Pacino would be filming a small role as a terrorist network's chief in the next James Bond film " Quantum of Solace", both the studio and Pacino's agent have denied the story and issued the following statement: "Contrary to published reports, Al Pacino will not be appearing in the next James Bond movie."
Pacino is due to appear as Salvador Dalí in the upcoming biopic Dalí & I: The Surreal Story, based on the book written by myself, a Belgian, as well as in the final remake of Rififi in which Pacino will reprise the gangster part of Belgian actor Jean Servais in the original 1955 Jules Dassin thriller. Release date for Dalí & I and Rififi is 2009.
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Costa Brava: Salvador Dali and Digno Garcia
In the mid-60s, Salvador Dali asked Paraguayan composer and harpsi- chord -player Digno
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Garcia y Los Paraguayos--he lived in Belgium and had a house in Spain--to compose a song dedicated to Dali himself, to Cadaquès and to the beauty of the Costa Brava.
Digno Garcia came up with Costa Brava. For two years, it was a Number 1-hit in Spain.
I got a call the other day from Digno Garcia's son Diego who sent me photographs of his father with Salvador Dali as well as a sample of the Costa Brava song. [ Listen here ]
Another Digno Garcia composition, La Malaguena, was used in Oliver Stone's Fourth of July starring Tom Cruise.
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John does it again
"V FOR VENDETTA" director James McTiegue will direct sci fi thriller REVELATION, possibly starring Natalie Portman.
The story focuses on a female journalist who is assigned to investigate a series of bizarre murders and discovers that the victims were all being treated by the head of a group that researches alien abductions.
John Salvati wrote the screenplay. His credits include " DALI & I: THE SURREAL STORY", the film about Salvador Dalí based on my book and being directed by Andrew Niccol, starring Al Pacino and Cillian Murphy.
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For Stan's website, click here...
Dutch Dalí & I cover from Manteau in Belgium/Holland
(published March 15, 2008)
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Dali & I: THE BOOK Hilariously funny, gripping
and thought-provoking...
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Al Pacino is reuniting with writer-director Andrew Niccol for "DALI & I: The Surreal Story," a biopic based on the auto-
biographical book DALI & I: The Surreal Story by Stan Lauryssens.
Pacino will play Dali in the movie, which will span the 1960s-80s, a time when most of Dali's great work was behind him and he became more flamboyant. The story also will focus on a mentor-protege relationship between Dali and Stan Lauryssens, a young art dealer.
The 60,000 word Dali & I typescript, a movie tie-in novelisation in English, is now available. The book is peppered with fast and flashy dialogue and action and a cliffhanger on almost every page, the way Stan Lauryssens writes his crime fiction novels.
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Australian and New
Zealand Dalí & I cover
from Black Inc. Books
(published July 2008)
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Turkish "Dalí & I"
cover from April
Publishing (pu-
blished March 1, 2008)
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Czech and Slovak
Dalí & I jacket from
Fragment (published
April 14, 2008)
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Spanish Dalí & I
jacket from Ediciones
B (published June 2008)
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Foreign rights are handled by the Lennart Sane Agency. All requests and inquiries should be directed to Philip Sane at philip.sane@lennartsaneagency.com.
Foreign rights already sold to Russia (AST Publishers), Taiwan (PROPHET PRESS, the Eurasian Publishing Group), Czechia and Slovakia (FRAGMENT), Greece (PSICHOGIOS), Belgium and the Netherlands (MANTEAU/STANDAARD), Serbia (MEDIA II), Finland (Johnny Kniga Publishing), Portugal (Editora PRESENCA), Romania (POLIROM Editura), Turkey (APRIL Publishing), Hungary (PÉCSI DIREKT KFT. ALEXANDRA KIADÓJA), Brazil (EDIOURO Publicações), China (THINKINGDOM MEDIA GROUP), Poland (BERTELSMANN MEDIA), Japan (ASPECT Publishing), France (ÉDITIONS DE L'ARCHIPEL), Spain (EDICIONES B), Korea (Random House Korea, Inc), Australia and New Zealand (BLACK Inc. BOOKS, an imprint of Schwartz Publishing/Penguin Books Australia), UK--United Kingdom (MAINSTREAM Publishing), Denmark (POLITIKENS FORLAG) and Germany (SEELIGER VERLAG).
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS/St. MARTIN'S PRESS (New York) acquired World English Rights. In the words of Peter Joseph, Associate Editor: "I do believe that this book can find success in the realm of Hoax, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Catch Me If You Can. But with or without the film, I think that Stan’s written a revealing book about Dali and his world that I’d love the chance to publish and champion."
Tantor Unabridged Audiobooks
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Tantor Media (US) acquired USCP Audio rights for CD and MP3: "Publishers Weekly named Tantor Media the number one fastest-growing independent publisher. Tantor has a dedicated library department, and releases over
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twenty new titles each month, including classics, award-winners, and bestsellers."
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To Pre-order (7 Audio CD's, 1 Mp3-CD, 8hrs 30 min in all) click here...
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Leonardo DiCaprio
in Catch Me If You
Can
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George Clooney
in Confessions of
a Dangerous Mind
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Richard Gere
in Hoax
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Stan Lauryssens writes so well you can almost feel the dust blowing in through the window."--Derek Blyth in THE BULLETIN
Dalí & I del escritor belga Stan Lauryssens, el libro más polémico que se ha escrito sobre la vida del genio surrealista.
--Paraguasroto.com
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[ Al Pacino and Robin Williams
in Insomnia ]
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Al Pacino is a master
Q: I talked to Chris Nolan earlier this year, who di- rected him in " Insomnia." He was saying that Pacino knows exactly where the camera is, knows just how big or small to be -- that he's just a master.
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A: Yes he is. There was one little moment (in "Simone") when he was just doing a little reaction shot -- it's the reaction when Catherine Keener (playing his ex-wife) asks him into the house, and it's obviously been a while since she asked him into the house. He's just turns and gives this quick reaction shot. But he does (several takes) and he just kept doing it. She'd ask him again and again, and every time his reaction was just slightly different. He would go, "Really?" Or he'd say nothing. Or he'd do a double-take. It was a hypnotizing moment and I just...let the film run out. I couldn't say "cut."
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Q: So you had bunches of takes to chose from.
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A: Exactly. And the editor, he looked at it in dailies and he said, "Wow. You could use the worst one of those and it would be brilliant." I'll never destroy those dailies because it was just one of those fantastic moments. He is a master. That's what I'm trying to say.
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