the year 1994 was a memorable one for authors David Guterson and... Ethan Hawke? While Guterson was quietly celebrating the publication of his first novel, Snow Falling on Cedars, Ethan Hawke was making headlines by signing a $400,000 book deal with Little, Brown & Co.

Despite the impressive advance, the young actor's novel, The Hottest State, was coolly received by critics when it debuted in 1996.
Snow Falling on Cedars, on the other hand, was a hot commodity with both readers and reviewers, spending 78 weeks on the Publisher's Weekly bestseller list - in paperback.
Fortunately for movie fans, Hawke kept his day job and, as fate would have it, he currently stars in the highly anticipated big-screen version of Snow Falling on Cedars.
Part mystery, part love story, part courtroom drama, the film takes audiences back to the post-war America of the 1950s. Hawke plays Ishmael Chambers, a journalist covering the murder trial of a Japanese-American fisherman (Rick Yune) on San Piedro, a fictional island in the Pacific Northwest.

Compromising Ishmael's objectivity is his unrequited love for Hatsue, the fisherman's wife. It turns out that she was once his childhood sweetheart.
During the trial, the entire town's objectivity seems to be jeopardized by the strong anti-Japanese sentiments that linger after the Second World War. Flashbacks to the war and the internment of the island's Japanese-Americans are interwoven with the trial scenes.
"This aspect of American history means something to me because my dad was in the Air Force and I grew up in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor," says castmember Sam Shepard. "I remember very clearly the resulting prejudice against Japanese-Americans."

Japanese actress Youki Kudoh (Heaven's Burning) plays Hatsue Miyamoto, while Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal) is Nels Gudmundsson, her husband's defence lawyer. International critics singled out Sydow for praise when the film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. He was touted as a possible Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actor.

Although Snow Falling on Cedars features a strong ensemble cast, Ethan Hawke's star power will likely draw many moviegoers to the film. He recently appeared in Great Expectations opposite Gwyneth Paltrow, and in Gattaca with his real-life wife, Uma Thurman. The two have a one-year-old daughter, Maya Ray.

And what convinced Hawke to uproot his new family for a long location shoot? He read the book, of course. "It's rare you read something where all the characters are fully constructed representations of human beings, with a past and a future," says Hawke. "There is so much richness of detail and it's a very interesting story."

High praise from one author to another.
                                                                                                         Deborah Smyth