comment #1

Breedlove says ...

I loved Fight Club but found his novels after that basically unreadable. And Clark Gregg has always vaguely annoyed me for some reason. He's like the male Rebecca Pidgon, for the Mamet connection and the oddly zombie-like delivery both.

comment #2

AJW says ...

No one is as bad as Rebecca Pidgeon.

I read Choke freshman year of college because I liked the movie version of Fight Club. It was...different than what I was used to reading. Can't say I thought it was excellent, but it did lead me to read several more of his (they're easy reads). Survivor would be the one I'd most like to see adapted.

Wells, did you catch this one?

comment #3

Me says ...

I'll admit Pidgeon is usually the weak link in Mamet's movies, but she was amazing in State and Maine. I can't even describe the size of my crush on her from that film.

comment #4

christian says ...

Isn't every Palahnuik book the same? Hurt macho men amid sureal ludicrous plots? For the height in humorlessness, try to engage with a Palahnuik fan.

comment #5

p.Vice says ...

I'll wait for Sole Survivor.

comment #6

Bocephus says ...

I like Palahniuk. He's a lot like Vonnegut, minus the talent and insight.

He's hardly a great writer, but his books are interesting, fast reads that would make good movies in the right directors' hands.

comment #7

BurmaShave says ...

This seems way too on the nose. Will Rockwell ever "break out"?

comment #8

Edward says ...

Looks quirky, might be interesting. On a side note: Am I the only person who hates the "arty" cut to a black and white clip of a profile of the interviewee. This technique is way over used and not that effective anyway. It takes me right out of the interview. I'd never be tempted to use this technique in any of the many interviews I've produced, shot and edited.

comment #9

CMed1 says ...

Survivor was really good until Palahniuk introduced the religious cult into the book.

comment #10

D.Z. says ...

Choke: "It's like Fight Club meets Sideways, Juno and Little Miss Sunshine combined! After all, we here at Fox Searchlight don't want to come off TOO independent..."

comment #11

York "Budd" Durden says ...

DZ, that's just stupid. Go to bed.

comment #12

GlassFamily says ...

Clark Gregg's smugness just melted my laptop...

I haven't read the book, but does it read as sunshine-y bright as the movie seems to feel? I mean, Fight Club was funny, but that shit is pitch black. This seems like it really is playing for laughs, which will probably come off as really, really awful and almost certainly the wrong way to go.

comment #13

thatrader says ...

I'm actually pretty damn surprised that Searchlight didn't bid on "Hamlet 2." Peter Rice was in my row and I saw him leave after the screening in what looked like a hurry. Maybe because they already knew they were taking this?

As for "Choke," honestly, I would've loved to have seen Darren Aronofsky or someone like that adapt it. From what it looks like, it looks like it's going to be a Hollywood-ized version of it, only with an indie budget, like a lot of Sundance films.

Gregg looks like he lit it like a studio film and is playing it like one. $100 says it doesn't do that well and gets compared VERY negatively to "Fight Club."

comment #14

jeffmcm says ...

Everything about State and Main is awful, although Rebecca Pidgeon might be the least of that movie's problems. I remember loathing it, but not necessarily her, the way that it felt like she ruined two or three other Mamet films around that time.

Daniel Zelter, are you trying to restrategize yourself to be the 'wacky', 'clever' poster, a la Walter Sobchak? If so, let's just nip that in the bud. You have to not be an idiot to make something like that happen.

comment #15

MAGGA says ...

The problem with this film, and the reason I would never consider adapting something by Chuck Phalaniuk, is that Fight Club is such a brilliantly staged, lit and acted movie, and since Phalaniuks books all seem to involve similar themes and a similar style of writing. Still, this film seems to be doing all the wrong things. The chronic masturbator, for instance, should be so sad that it makes yo laugh uncomfortably. But what does thi indie director do? Make it "Quirky". Low expectations for this

comment #16

MikeSchaeferSF says ...

thatrader: accoring to the NYT, Searchlight *did* bid on Hamlet 2, but Focus "edged out Fox Searchlight, the Weinstein Company, Lionsgate, Summit and Warner Independent, according to two executives close to the talks."

comment #17

BurmaShave says ...

STATE AND MAIN is great. jeffmcm, might I ask what your problems were with it? "It needs work". One of the best closing lines, ever.

comment #18

jeffmcm says ...

I can't completely remember since it's been so long, but I remember basically loathing every character and not understanding why I was being asked to spend time with them. Sort of the same problem I had with Cloverfield. It also seemed mired in innumerable cliches.

comment #19

jeffmcm says ...

I might as well ask, what's great about it?