TobyYoung Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In a true example of life imitating art, British author Toby Young managed to offend an Oscar-nominated director, a few producers and even the leading lady on the set of the movie adaptation of his novel How to Lose Friends & Alienate People.

But Young -- who can't help but laugh when rehashing outlandish stories about hiring a stripper for the office on Take Your Daughter to Work Day and, ultimately, being tossed aside after Vanity Fair was no longer amused with him -- still maintains that he's actually a very charming guy.

Young talked to us about getting kicked off the movie based on the book he wrote about his life, who he'd cast to play himself if he could choose anyone and why Kirsten Dunst thinks he's a demented stalker.

The poster for How to Lose Friends and Alienate People uses that horrible big red font you're no doubt familiar with -- that ubiquitous "goofy family comedy" lettering suggesting that it features Eddie Murphy in a fat suit and is terrible. God knows why. The movie stars Simon Pegg, not Eddie Murphy, and -- not surprisingly -- looks pretty funny. I actually didn't go nuts over Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, though I liked both a lot; on the other hand, I also enjoyed Run Fatboy Run, which seemed to leave most people cold. Maybe the answer is that I think Pegg is the genius and not (necessarily) Edgar Wright.

Friends, based on Toby Young's memoir about being a British nobody who finds himself among New York's high society, working at a prestigious magazine, is another Wright-less Simon Pegg affair. Most of the laughs in the new trailer, which you can watch at the top of this post (it's considerably longer and better than the British teaser from a while ago), come courtesy of Pegg's unassuming physical comedy; I love that he never forces it or tries too hard, so that the slapstick seems to be a natural part of whatever character he's playing. The little dance he does about 40 seconds in might justify the film's existence all on its own. And I like that the dog gag at the end doesn't go quite where you'd expect.

The movie also stars Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson, and Megan Fox (probably not naked the whole time). It's supposed to come out October 3rd.

I keep wondering if I will like the movie version of Toby Young's memoir How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. I hated the book, mostly because I couldn't stand Young's pathetic voice, but so far the casting of the adaptation has me intrigued. With the exception of Kirsten Dunst, the players are of a high enough caliber to make all the unlikeable characters at least enjoyable to watch -- especially now that the great Jeff Bridges has signed on to play the character based on Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter (named Clayton Harding in the script). Also added to the cast is Gillian Anderson, who will play a top PR person. Bridges and Anderson join Dunst, Danny Huston and Simon Pegg, who will star as Young.

The casting of Bridges as Carter should make How to Lose Friends even more comparable to The Devil Wears Prada, but I hope the actor won't make his character as much of a caricature as Meryl Streep made hers -- though I don't mean to put Streep's Oscar-nominated performance down. I would just rather Bridges play a more complex, believable person, who could be completely understood as the villain in Young's miserable world, while also appearing to audiences as a smart, justifiably difficult boss. After all, the book suggests that -- unlike Andy's resentment of Miranda in Prada -- Young actually has a lot of admiration for Carter. And more than Carter, the other Condé Nasties or anyone else, Young is his own villain.

In addition to the casting, I am anxious to see what the tone of How to Lose Friends will be. Directed by Robert B. Weide, who is an enormous fan and documenter of the work of Kurt Vonnegut, Lenny Bruce and the Marx Brothers, as well as a former director for Curb Your Enthusiasm, the movie will hopefully be influenced by the humor of at least one of those subjects. I also hope that the movie is good enough to get Weide some more clout in Hollywood. For ten years I've been dying for him to get to work on a project he once mentioned interest in: an adaptation of Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan. How to Lose Friends & Alienate People begins shooting next month.

During an in-depth interview with IESB.net on the heels of the release of Spider-Man 3, Kirsten Dunst has revealed that her next role will be opposite Simon Pegg in the adaptation of the book How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. Dunst will play a Vanity Fair writer, but would not confirm whether or not she's the romantic interest of the Toby Young character, although that seems like a fair bet. How to Lose, is of course, the memoir of the British journalist Young who was brought over to work for Vanity Fair and found himself laughably out of place at the mag. The film version, which is being helmed by Robert B. Weide, is scheduled to hit theaters sometime in 2008. At another point during the interview, Dunst re-confirms that she is set to play Debbie Harry in the Blondie biopic, but cuts off discussion of the project by saying that it's too early to get into it.

Is Dunst in the running for the much talked-about remake of Barbarella? "No," she says. "I don't want to wear that oufti. That's too revealing. No, I don't want to be worried about being in a bikini during the entire film." The actress also confirms that Sweet Relief, the story of Marla Ruzicka, hasn't begun production but is still on the horizon. When asked if she views the project as potentially controversial, she responds in part: "It's about a woman, you know. I don't think it's about Iraq. It's about a woman. And, you know, what in this 24 year old, I think she's 24 at the time makes you want to go to Iraq on her own without, you know, security and just be there. And, you know, count bodies, visit orphanages, manipulate soldiers into getting information all on her own accord. You know that takes a very brave and also probably, you know, it's kind of crazy thing to do. I would never put myself in that position. I couldn't imagine doing that, you know. So I think that it'll be, it's more about this woman."

Other topics that emerge include the inevitable reflections on the Spider-Man series, her love of Barack Obama, her dream to work with Roman Polanski, and her thoughts on critics. There's also a nice little exchange in there somewhere that draws out Dunst's famous prickliness, when she mentions "that movie with the vampires" and the interviewer asks "Interview With a Vampire?" to which she responds "No, no, not, like I'm going to reference my own film and act like I don't know what it is. That would be so lame. No, it was called The Lost Boys."

Perhaps buoyed by the success of the Vogue-skewering The Devil Wears Prada, Number 9 Films is getting serious about its screen version of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, a bestselling memoir about journalist Toby Young's "disastrous stint as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair." In his book, Young is hard on both himself (specifically his pathetic attempts to "ingratiate himself with celebrities and impress supermodels") and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, as well as "the self-importance of the entire Vanity Fair machine."

Though the part of Carter (called Clayton Harding in the screenplay; Vanity Fair is called Sharps magazine -- fewer lawsuits that way) is yet to be cast, Young will be played by Simon Pegg, which probably means the movie is going to be good. Written by Peter Straughan, the film version of Young's story will mark the big-screen directorial debut of Curb Your Enthusiasm director Robert B. Weide; production is expected to begin next spring.