READY TO CHOKE?
Sam Rockwell has signed on to play Victor Mancini in the movie adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's Choke, co-starring Anjelica Huston as his mother. Interesting casting, but neither actor fitted my own mental image for their characters, particularly Huston.
If you're unaware, Choke concerns a sex-addict (Victor) who fakes choking in swanky restaurants to form connections with his dining "saviours". Of course, being a Palahniuk novel, there are more layers of strangeness and amusing facts scattered throughout, although it isn't my favourite Palahniuk novel. It dragged quite a bit in the middle.
No, the best Chuck Palahniuk* novel is still Survivor. Of course, Fight Club is his best idea (and he reuses elements of its style/structure constantly), but David Fincher's 1999 film is better than Palahniuk's source material.
I actually just finished reading his latest book, Rant, a few weeks ago. I found it pleasantly diverting, once you settle into the "oral biography" style. I particularly enjoyed the crazy curveball it throws towards the end.
Anyway, any film based on a Palahniuk book is something to keep an eye on. I'm amazed more of the author's work hasn't made the leap to the big-screen, actually. I know Fight Club bombed at the box-office, but it did incredible business on DVD and regularly tops film polls now. Best film of the 90s? Well, it's one of them certainly.
Survivor should get the big-screen treatment next, I think. It's about the last surviving member of a suicide cult, narrating his life's story into the blackbox recording of a doomed passenger jet. It's great stuff, packed with incident and clever asides, but it was sadly pulled from development in the wake of 9/11. Can plane crashes be used as entertainment again, in 2007? It's hardly the basis of the film anyway -- just a framing device.
I recommend you take a look at Palahniuk's work. I haven't read everything of his yet, but of the stuff I have read, I'd recommend Survivor, Rant and Haunted to get you started.
* It's pronounced Par-la-nik.
Sam Rockwell has signed on to play Victor Mancini in the movie adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's Choke, co-starring Anjelica Huston as his mother. Interesting casting, but neither actor fitted my own mental image for their characters, particularly Huston.
If you're unaware, Choke concerns a sex-addict (Victor) who fakes choking in swanky restaurants to form connections with his dining "saviours". Of course, being a Palahniuk novel, there are more layers of strangeness and amusing facts scattered throughout, although it isn't my favourite Palahniuk novel. It dragged quite a bit in the middle.
No, the best Chuck Palahniuk* novel is still Survivor. Of course, Fight Club is his best idea (and he reuses elements of its style/structure constantly), but David Fincher's 1999 film is better than Palahniuk's source material.
I actually just finished reading his latest book, Rant, a few weeks ago. I found it pleasantly diverting, once you settle into the "oral biography" style. I particularly enjoyed the crazy curveball it throws towards the end.
Anyway, any film based on a Palahniuk book is something to keep an eye on. I'm amazed more of the author's work hasn't made the leap to the big-screen, actually. I know Fight Club bombed at the box-office, but it did incredible business on DVD and regularly tops film polls now. Best film of the 90s? Well, it's one of them certainly.
Survivor should get the big-screen treatment next, I think. It's about the last surviving member of a suicide cult, narrating his life's story into the blackbox recording of a doomed passenger jet. It's great stuff, packed with incident and clever asides, but it was sadly pulled from development in the wake of 9/11. Can plane crashes be used as entertainment again, in 2007? It's hardly the basis of the film anyway -- just a framing device.
I recommend you take a look at Palahniuk's work. I haven't read everything of his yet, but of the stuff I have read, I'd recommend Survivor, Rant and Haunted to get you started.
* It's pronounced Par-la-nik.
