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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Books / Film A Confederacy of Dunces: The Movie! (Again.)

Posted by Erik Henriksen on Wed, May 23, 2012 at 10:44 AM

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So Vulture is reporting that Zach Galifianakis is set to star as one of the greatest characters literature has to offer: Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero (?) of John Kennedy Toole's as-brilliant-as-everyone-says-it-is-and-maybe-even-more-so A Confederacy of Dunces. Vulture also says The Muppets' James Bobin is in negotiations to direct, and as someone who loves the book with more or less his entire being, my gut reaction to the news is that those seem like fine choices, if, in fact, the whole enterprise is actually going to happen, which I mostly hope it doesn't, and also it'd be pretty remarkable if it did, considering all past attempts to bring Dunces to the screen have failed, some of them spectacularly:

• Harold Ramis was supposed to direct a version with John Belushi and Richard Pryor
• Two other supposed Ignatiuses who were reportedly signed on, at different points, but never made it onscreen: Chris Farley and John Candy
• The only adaptation I ever got genuinely excited about was the Steven Soderbergh version, which—here reports vary—would've featured a script by Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, and would have been directed by either Soderbergh or David Gordon Green. Throw in Will Ferrell as Ignatius, and I think this thing might've been fantastic. This one even had a public reading of the screenplay at one point—with Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Mos Def, Rosie Perez, Jesse Eisenberg, and more participating—but still got off the ground. Granted, I'm a huge Soderbergh fan, but I think this could've been pretty remarkable.
• When I picture Ignatius in my head he's basically a sweatier, glowering version of Uncle Buck-era John Candy, so take that for what it's worth. Uncle Buck, apparently, is my ideal Ignatius. Which makes me think John Hughes probably could've done a pretty interest—no. Not going to finish that thought. Oh! Or John C. Reilly? I don't know.

ANYWAY. Considering Hollywood's ever-increasing resistance to producing original material (last night I endured Men in Black 3, what what), it's only a matter of time until some adaptation of Dunces ends up happening, regardless of the fact that it'd take more than a few genius-level people to turn the book into anything remotely filmable. I'm not filled with glee about Bobin and Galifianakis—I like both of their work, just not sure if I like it that much—but if that duo ends up making this thing, well, it could definitely be a lot worse. Which seems to be about the best one can say when it comes to a beloved book getting pushed in front of the cameras, whether it belongs there or not.

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