ChuckPalahniuk Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Nearly two months ago, a homemade bomb exploded outside a Starbucks coffee shop in Manhattan, causing property damage but not injuring anyone. The bomber was finally arrested yesterday, and now the police are saying that the alleged teenage bomber "was launching his own 'Project Mayhem,'" reports The New York Times, "referring to a plan hatched by the protagonist of Fight Club, played by Brad Pitt, to sabotage corporations by destroying property."

The accused, 17-year-old, Kyle Shaw, "had started an underground fight club modeled on the one in the film, [Police Commissioner Raymond W.] Kelly said, and had bragged to friends that he was behind the bombing." A search of Shaw's home turned up news clippings about the explosion, a box of sparklers -- the bomb was reportedly constructed from fireworks explosives, a plastic bottle, and electrical tape -- and a DVD of Fight Club. A former high school classmate remembers that Shaw "wanted to watch the movie in our English class in the 11th grade. We were discussing existentialism in class, and he suggested we watch the movie as an example. We ended up watching I Heart Huckabees."

Based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk and directed by David Fincher, the 1999 film also starred Edward Norton. It would be easy to say that if Shaw was really a fan, he should have remembered the first and second rules of Fight Club. But even before that, he should have remembered: it's only a movie.

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

Frankly, I'm a little surprised at the reception to Clark Gregg's Choke (12 screens). It has pulled in nearly $3 million, which is fairly respectable, although it's apparently still shy of recouping its production budget. Critics have banded together to rate it a low 56% on Rotten Tomatoes (I contributed a "fresh" review), but fans have ranked it a high 7.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I guess this means that the film has its fans, but only a small group of them. And so it goes when filmmakers try to adapt cult novels.

Cult novels are a far more difficult prospect than a mere best-seller or Pulitzer Prize winner. These are novels that people love fiercely, oftentimes written by a novelist that they love fiercely. Many of these novels resist filmic adaptation for some reason or another (The Catcher in the Rye, On the Road, A Confederacy of Dunces, The Crying of Lot 49, Kitchen, Snow Crash, etc.). But when a movie of a cult novel hits, it hits big. It crawls under the public's skin and nestles there beside the novel itself. David Cronenberg made a classic out of William S. Burroughs' "unfilmable" novel Naked Lunch. Danny Boyle made an energetic, powerful, disturbing crazy-quilt out of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, and Ridley Scott made a flat-out masterpiece out of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (a.k.a. Blade Runner).

While Choke hacks its way across theater screens, another Chuck Palahniuk novel is getting the spotlight. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Haunted has been optioned by New School Media. (Sweet! I might find use for those postcards from my forgotten days as a street team member after all!)

But don't expect anything of Pitt proportions. Belgian director Koen Mortier has signed on to adapt and direct the film, which will only be the director's third feature (after last year's Ex Drummer and the upcoming 22nd of May). While Mortier might be able to knock this out of the park, I think chances are good that this will be another on-screen adaptation that fails to live up to the fervor incited by Fight Club. But the content is certainly interesting.

Haunted follows a group of people who sign up for a secret writers' retreat, only to get locked in an abandoned theater, forced to write for the mysterious Mr. Whittier. Instead of finding themselves victims to a horrific mastermind, the writers are the ones that begin to destroy their surroundings and torture themselves. The problem comes in with how this will play out -- will Mortier film the story of the writers with the writers' stories, or choose to tell a simple tale?

Either way, I'll still wait for Invisible Monsters. If we can get Baron Underbheit, we can get Daisy.

If you are a fan of Chuck Palahniuk then today might be your lucky day, because it looks like audiences could be getting more Palahniuk (and his merry band of screw-ups) on the big screen than they can shake a stick at. Before you get too excited, keep in mind that Mr. Palahniuk loves to mess with people, so we should probably take this news with an enormous grain of salt. The latest chatter to hit the net is that the feature film version of Palahniuk's 2002 novel, Lullaby, has begun the casting process. But that's not all! According to The Cult (the official fan site for the author), Rant (a great 50's sci-fi inspired tale) has also been optioned by an unnamed producer.

The news about Lullaby comes from Film School Rejects, who claim that they got their scoop from the man himself. According to Rejects, "Lullaby, an adaptation that hasn't been tracked nearly as closely as his other works, is already at the casting stage. The financing is in place, and even though the production won't tell Palahniuk who they are looking to cast, he believes they are waiting for a concrete production start day to make the announcement." I don't mean to be cynical, but don't you think if this was the real deal, Palahniuk would have been told that information?

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from the upcoming film Choke, based on one of my personal favorite Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) books. Choke stars Sam Rockwell as Victor Mancini, a snarky sex addict who cons well-to-do folks out of their money by fake-choking in restaurants while subsequently feeding off the sympathy of others. He then uses this money to help pay his mother's (Anjelica Huston) mental hospital bills. In the clip above -- which is one of a few flashbacks in the film -- young Victor and his mother visit the zoo ... at night ... and they're not exactly there to buy cotton candy. You can learn more about Choke over at its official website. I saw the film back at Sundance and liked it quite a bit -- especially Rockwell's off-the-charts performance as Mancini. Definitely see this one when you get the chance; it arrives in theaters on September 26. Additionally, watch the trailer and another clip over on Moviefone. Enjoy.

I was pretty skeptical that Clark Gregg would be able to bring Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke to the big screen. Fox Searchlight has launched the red band trailer for the dark comedy (along with four new clips), and I'll be the first to admit I was wrong. The first trailer was released back in May, and for anyone who was worried the book's more 'colorful' moments wouldn't be included, I'm here to tell you the filthiness is present and accounted for -- and I couldn't be happier.

Along with the new trailer, there are also some additional clips with the added bonus of exotic dancers filling in the narration from the book -- bizarre, sure, but surprisingly entertaining. Now for the bad news: the site has one of those age-verification login pages that are pretty crappy at the best of the times, but luckily you can always count on You Tube.

Choke is the story of sex addict Victor Mancini (played by Sam Rockwell), a con-man with the unusual tactic of choking in restaurants to earn money to care for his dying mother (Anjelica Huston). It almost sounds sweet, doesn't it? Well, it's not, and if you know anything about the work of Chuck Palahniuk, then you already know how messed up the story gets -- and I truly mean that as a compliment.

Choke arrives in theaters on September 26, 2008.

I don't remember the last book that had a viral campaign behind it. I'm not talking about a graphic novel or a comic book; I'm talking a straight-up novel -- one that showcases a flashy website with viral videos, tour dates and erotic images. Furthermore, I'm talking about Chuck Palahniuk's new book, Snuff (which streets on May 20). Palahniuk, as most of us already know, wrote the books Fight Club and Choke -- the latter of which just pushed back its August release date to September 26 after premiering to some pretty positive buzz earlier this year at Sundance. Snuff, in case you're wondering, tells the story of Cassie Wright; a porn actress who wants to set a record by having sex with 600 guys at the same time ... or something like that. The book itself is told from the perspective of the guys trying to fulfill her wishes.

What I find interesting about this viral campaign is that they've gone ahead and shot mock trailers for Cassie's films, like The Wizard of Ass (posted after the jump for certain NSFW reasons). Not only that, but Chuck himself sat down to interview "Cassie" as well (check out that three-parter over here, toward the bottom of the page). My question is this: Do strange viral videos like the ones being offered here take anything away from the book? Normally, we'll see this sort of stuff when the book is being turned into a movie, but not before the book itself even hits shelves. Could this also be a way to showcase the visual aspects of said book to potential Hollywood buyers, or do you feel snuff, er, stuff like this is simply for the fans and no one else?

[via JoBlo]

The logjam may have been broken at Sundance. Just as I finished writing something about the slow selling conditions over the usually busy first weekend, Variety broke the news that Choke and Henry Poole is Here have both been sold.

Fox Searchlight acquired Choke in a deal valued at $5 million, for which the distributor receives "world rights, less several international territories," according to Variety. Erik Davis told us the film's world premiere on Monday night was a hot ticket and that it received shouts and cheers at the conclusion of the screening.

As a fan of the source material -- the novel comes from Fight Club author Chuck Palahnuik -- Erik said he had some issues with it. His review explains: "First-time director Clark Gregg (who also penned the script) decided to turn this adaptation into a straight-up laugher that really works ... some of the time." Erik was mighty impressed with Sam Rockwell's performance as a scheming sexual addict, though he wonders if "casual moviegoers and non-Palahniuk fanboys" will be care. Fox Searchlight now has five million reasons to make them care.

In the other big deal of the moment, Overture Films acquired US rights to comedy/drama Henry Poole is Here for about $3.5 million. Mark Pellington directed; he previously made Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies, and a whole bunch of music videos. Henry Poole stars Luke Wilson as a man who believes that he is dying, so he leaves his fiancee and family business to spend his final days alone -- but no one will leave him alone! To repeat an old joke, Overture Films now has three and a half million reasons to hope moviegoers will not, in fact, leave him alone.

After falling head over heels for Fight Club, I devoured everything I could get my hands on that had Chuck Palahniuk's name on it. At one point, I think I was even on the street team (although I have no memory of signing up for it), as I kept getting strange promotional items in the mail. So, hearing that Choke was going to be the next Palahniuk book to hit the big screen, I was stricken with a mixture of anxiety and excitement. Hearing that Clark Gregg adapted, directed, and acted in the film helped my hopes, as did the images released from set.

Now, we finally have something substantial to check out, courtesy of Rope of Silicon. Go here, and you can see a Sundance Channel clip about Choke, which features Gregg discussing the film, some silent clips matched with his words, and then a bit with Victor Mancini at his sexual addiction meeting. The silent nibbles include some reenactment footage, restaurant footage, and Denny's masturbation, but it's the meeting clip that has me sold. It has that frank, black humor present in Fight Club, but a little less flashy, and a little more raw and funny.

In his interview, Gregg discusses staying up all night to read the book, and says he thought: "No one else is going to agree with me, but there's a movie here, and no one else is going to agree with me, but I'm the only person who should make this." Stay tuned for our Sundance review and see if Gregg is right. In the meantime, I'm going to keep hoping that Invisible Monsters is next.

Last month, Jessica Barnes threw up the first official still to come from the production of Choke -- the feature adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel. In case you're not a fan of all things Chuck, the film follows a dude called Victor Mancini. After a childhood where his troubled mother would steal him from foster families, Victor grows up into an honorable man -- one who makes a living as a historical reenactor and choking con man. Basically, he goes to restaurants, chokes on his food, and then preys on the kindness of those who "save" his life. Oh yeah, and he also frequents sexual addiction workshops.

Now, it's crunch time. Will the film be able to find the magic that Fight Club did, or was that adaptation a one-hit Palahniuk wonder? It was adapted by, directed by, and co-starring Clark Gregg (The Human Stain, or the Miranda's dirty Catholic on Sex and the City), so I'm expecting good things. The film is gearing up for its premiere at Sundance, and Collider has thrown up a whole slew of images. If these pictures are any indication, we should be in for a sweet, Choke-filled ride. Most of the images have Sam Rockwell in his period garb, and there's peeks at Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke, Gregg, and two great shots of Anjelica Huston, who plays Victor's crazy mom. There's one image of her with V as a kid, and another after she's hospitalized. Check out the images and then stay tuned for Cinematical's review from Sundance!