Confederacy of Dunces

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Maybe this is more of an I Love Film piece of news, but a movie based on this book is currently in production. Apparently Will Ferrell is going to play Ignatius O'Reily. Mixed feelings about this, although I suppose it's a filmable book. I could at least imagine it being adapted to the stage. Anyone else on ILB read this book?

― Sengai, Tuesday, 23 December 2003 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

This could fuck up so easily...any idea who the director is? I heard that Philip Seymour Hoffman was lined up for the role, but I guess that was just a rumour.

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

David Gordon Green directed it. I think he is the same guy who directed George Washington which I haven't seen but I really must cuz everyone sez it was great and he gets compared to Terrence Malick whom I love. Lily Tomlin is in it and so are Christina Ricci and Drew barrymore and Mos Def and Will as Ignatius.(Drew produced it)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, and i loved the book but i haven't read it in years. it's something i could definitely read again. i never read the Neon bible(which was also made into a movie if i'm not mistaken).

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I LOVE this book and so don't really want to see a film of it but David G Green seems an interesting choice to adapt a funny book since his films seem pretty humourless ( i havent seen them but this is the vibe i get from clips). Will Ferrel - no. Hoffman would have been far better - in fact he seems like the only person who could possibly "do" ignatius )or maybe the big guy who played the cop in Magnolia. Whats his name?).

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 03:01 (twenty-one years ago)

When I read the first post, the first thing that popped into my head was that Philip Seymour Hoffman is the obvious guy. Maybe Will Ferrell would shock us all, but...nah. I can just so see PSH making it work, the fevered enthusiasms and misdirected intellect and fundamental freakishness.

John C. Reilly's not a bad choice either, though. Hell, he's got the name.

Anyway, Chris Rock should be Jones.

― spittle (spittle), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 06:29 (twenty-one years ago)

it should have been benecio del toro, based on his Fear and Loathing performance. I'm assuming that this is Will Ferrel's stab at credibility ala Sandler in Punch Drunk Love. I hope it turns out well!

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 07:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Cracking book + Being made into a film with Drew Barrymore & Christina Ricci = Great Idea

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

drew barrymore's company produced the excellent donnie darko - so i gave more credit to the idea than if someone else were to do the project.

― griffin doome, Tuesday, 23 December 2003 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm a huge fan of david gordon green's films thus far, but i wouldn't have thought of him as a natural choice for confederacy of dunces. still, i think he's immensely talented so perhaps it will work.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, Chris Rock should be Jones.

ooooo-eeeee!

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i really liked this when i read it a few years ago
who is will ferrell

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, Chris Rock should be Jones.

omg, i didn't even notice that at first. oooo-eeee, indeed.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I liked this book. Who is Will Farrell? Is that the guy from Elf?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 29 December 2003 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Ugh, Ugh, Ugh. How could anyone think of turning this classic into a movie???!!! The humor and delight is in the wording used to describe the situations. Grrrr.

And, if anyone could play Ignatius, I'd vote for Philip Seymour Hoffman, but I don't think it's possible to do justice to the character.

Kinda like the casting of Kevin Spacey in The Shipping News, playing a character who's supposed to be something of a bland, beached whale. I mean, why?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 5 February 2004 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

How is Will Farrell ever going to be big enough? Also, he can't be effortlessly and unconsciously funny, it's always 'look at me, I'm Will Farrell, See how funny I am!" I don't know. I'll reserve judgment only because I love Donnie Darko so much.

― webcrack (music=crack), Friday, 6 February 2004 05:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Laura, there's been talk of making this into a movie ever since the book came out in the early 80s. It went through several directors and rumored leads for years before falling into Barrymore's lap recently. I'm with Lauren upthread -- D. Gordon Green is my favorite new American director, so I have high hopes.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 9 February 2004 04:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm really having trouble with the whole idea of it becoming a movie. Maybe I'm just not much of a movie person.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 9 February 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

the thought depresses me somewhat, i must say.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 9 February 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i was just about to post a message asking what people thought about the fact that there wasn't going to be a film made of a confederacy of dunces after all when i realised that this wasn't the case...

what actually happened was that i had a dream in which there was some sort of elaborate hoax revolving around a film being made of the book...i wish i could remember the details,all i remember is standing in the train station near my house complaining about them making a film of it,when i found out through an article in the paper that the whole thing was a hoax...

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Cool. That's better than my dream of being chased by some people in a wood. I thought the best thing to do would be to act like a pig. My girlfriend woke me up with the words, "Mikey, stop oinking in your sleep."

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Has anyone read Toole's other book, and is it worthwhile?

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 24 February 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

Its a pretty good yarn but it's astonishing that it was written when he was 15 or so. It's well worth reading and the inroduction is very moving - how could it not be given what we know about his short life?

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 24 February 2005 16:23 (twenty years ago)

Drew Barrymore - Darlene
Mos Def - Jones
Olympia Dukakis - Santa Battaglia
Will Ferrell - Ignatius J. Reilly
Lily Tomlin - Mrs. Reilly

I forget, is Darlene the bar owner or the dancer. Must be the latter, actually, and I'm not excited to see Barrymore in the role. I can see exactly how she'll play it, ie, the same way she plays every other character in every movie she's been in. I guess that role isn't too large, unless they expand it in the movie, which they might, since I see no mention of Myrna and her character might be phased out by stupid writers (that would be AWFUL).

― W i l l (common_person), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

from http://www.movietome.com/movietome/servlet/MovieMain/movieid-94874/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces/ , btw, which also says the release date is 2004, so who knows if it's correct.

― W i l l (common_person), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

http://inferno.collegepublisher.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/872725.html

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 25 February 2005 02:43 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Does anyone not like this book, and find it, I don't know, as over-rated as Walker Percy's novels?

― the divorce plan, Sunday, 3 April 2005 22:01 (twenty years ago)

i believe Anne Sterzinger from here hates this book!

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 3 April 2005 22:51 (twenty years ago)

Is that a joke? Me like, sorry. I'm a sucker for that kinda laffs.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 4 April 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

I think it is overrated, but it's still good. Just not as good as everyone says it is.

― W i l l (common_person), Monday, 4 April 2005 02:15 (twenty years ago)

No, I love it -- it's too much fun to be overrated. The Moviegoer is also great.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 4 April 2005 02:18 (twenty years ago)

I thought it rollicked.

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 4 April 2005 03:54 (twenty years ago)

I loved this book so much when I read it at age 18 that I'm afraid to read it again for fear of finding it flawed. I'll probably see the movie the same way I see all other Will Ferrell movies -- late at night, on cable, without meaning to.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 4 April 2005 06:36 (twenty years ago)

Martin Amis - Kingsley Amis = John Kennedy Toole
(though part of me thinks this is far too generous)

-- Ann Sterzinger (asterzinge...), March 13th, 2005.

Confused, i remember reading this a while back and took it as an insult to Toole, sorry Anne.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 4 April 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

i heard the film was scrapped. although it could have been a nightmare, i was kind of looking forward to it in a slightly masochistic way.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 4 April 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I heard the film was scrapped, which I'm happy about. Though Ferrell was probably the best choice possible for the lead.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

Though I just had a flash of inspiration - Oliver Platt!

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

How do you people all know who David Gordon Green and Will Ferrell are? Is that something that Americans know? I think that in England, we have never heard of them.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

I have (only since this year admittedly) heard of Will Ferrell! I've seen Anchorman and Old School and Starsky & Hutch v recently. Perhaps if you watched more of this type of film PF?

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

What type of film?

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 14:22 (twenty years ago)

Cabal Comedy

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

I can understand not knowing who David Gordon Green is, he's only done three movies, none of which were huge, and they are all very "American." However, the two I've seen ("George Washington" and "All the Real Girls") were both excellent and certainly worth seeking out, and "Undertow" was supposed to be good too (not out on DVD yet though). He would have been an interesting choice to do the CoD movie: his movies that I've seen are certainly very Southern U.S., which makes sense, but he has not done a comedy (the two I've seen have little flashes of warm humor, but no big laughs), and he hasn't done anything with big movie stars.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

i didn't like the book much. felt like it was OK: kind of the same joke over and over again & i didn't find it particularly funny in the first place. i envision the movie version being something along the lines of "bad santa".

― j c (j c), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's my problem with it too. Occassionally the device of that same joke repeated as nauseum works wonders: when Ignatius leads the factory workers to depose Gonzalez, the repetitive rhythm created (or at least numbed me into accepting) a surrealish plausibility rendering the absurdity of the situation not only palatable but pretty damn funny. But otherwise, fuck, enough already. And is this book the reason why university writing teachers beat you over the head about not qualifying dialogue tags with descriptive adverbs?

I've got to say though that now that I'm halfway through I'm enjoying it more; especially as the various minor characters get scenes of their own, Ignatius gets less irritating. Maybe by the end I'll see the light.

― the divorce plan, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

The last few pages do kinda have a retro-effect on the whole book. I wouldn't have liked it as much without this effect (it's not a big plot twist or something like that, but I won't go into details).

― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

I expect this idea to be totally shouted down but: Zach Galifiniakis could be a good Ignatius, if they ever made a movie of this. I don't know if he's got the acting chops but he's got the right look.

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 4 November 2010 21:56 (fourteen years ago)

six months pass...

actually n/a that's a great idea; far better than Will Ferret

― pax raggetta (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 25 May 2011 15:56 (fourteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

Z.G. in lead of film version back on again:

http://www.ifc.com/fix/2012/05/zach-galifianakis-james-bobin-a-confederacy-of-dunces

Since John Candy was alive when I read it, he was my choice.

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 24 May 2012 00:54 (thirteen years ago)

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