The Untold Truth Of Into The Wild

"Into the Wild" was not the first book by Jon Krakauer to get the movie treatment. In fact, Krakauer's firsthand account of a disaster on Mount Everest, "Into Thin Air," was the basis for two different films. However, "Into the Wild" was the first movie adaptation that Krakauer actually liked.

Krakauer told Indiewire that the 1997 TV movie "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest," pretty much ruined him for wanting to see his books adapted into movies ever again. Krakauer said, "They asked me to be a consultant and they didn't listen to any of my consulting and it was awful." His experience was even worse with the 2015 movie "Everest." According to Outside Online, director Baltasar Kormákur didn't even bother reaching out to Krakauer (at least not directly), even though Michael Kelly was going to be portraying a fictionalized version of the author. Krakauer's assessment of the movie was blunt: "It's total bull," he told The Los Angeles Times.

So it's all the more significant that Krakauer loved the movie version of "Into the Wild." Certainly, he feared the worst at first. Krakauer explained to the Los Angeles Times that he didn't get the chance to visit the set until the last day of production. He warned the director, "Sean, if you [screw] this up, I don't want you to say I was there." Thankfully, Krakauer was pleasantly surprised. "When [Penn] showed me the rough cut," said Krakauer, "I wanted to kiss him, I was so happy."