It’s too bad all trailers can’t all start out with Burroughs’ soothing drone, “Death smells.  I mean, death has a special smell, over and above the smell of cyanide, cordite, blood, carrion of burnt flesh.”  The website for William S. Burroughs: A Man Within suggests that the film’s currently in post-production, and

features never before seen footage of William S. Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with his closest friends and colleagues including John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Laurie Anderson, Peter Weller, David Cronenberg, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Sonic Youth, Anne Waldman, George Condo, Hal Willner, James Grauerholz, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, V. Vale, David Ohle, Wayne Propst, Dr. William Ayers, Diane DiPrima, Donovan, Dean Ripa (the world?

Wow! Does that look great! My only potential gripe: <i>Iggy Pop?</i> I love me some vintage Ig as much as the next guy, but I think his legacy and rep gets him into places that seem inappropriate. I kinda think his readings of Burroughs sort of sunk bits of the wonderful Laswell album Hashishin. He reads it like someone who doesn’t really get it, even though Iggy and William might’ve been touchstones in some ways.
Similar to the inclusion of Dennis Hopper in The Source, reading Burroughs and chewing up the scene like Frank Booth.
Feh! That said, I can’t wait to see this!

“I kinda think his readings of Burroughs sort of sunk bits of the wonderful Laswell album Hashishin. He reads it like someone who doesn?

Forget interpreting art as the source of the issue - I’m not a believer so far that the filmmaker has any sense of Burroughs sensibility. The uniform of Burroughs and atitude was for a reason. But if just judging by the fonts used for the name-titles alone, the final work feels like it belongs to the warm and fuzzy “grunge-hipster” bohemia 1990s. Iggy Pop or a Sonic Youth soundtrack doesn’t help get it out of there. All late if not safe and past. Burroughs wasn’t safe but made so by one kind of reading that became prominent as he got to live so long. Pity as there should be a new take on Burroughs that isn’t just trying to trend to a “hip” credential feel, but to something more invested. Like “What ever happened to Kerouac” did for Kerouac.