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Galifianakis set for Pulitzer winner A Confederacy of Dunces
The 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning American novel A Confederacy of Dunces, posthumously awarded to the author, John Kennedy Toole, eleven years after his death, may finally make it to the big screen with Zach Galifianakis as the odd leading man.
The 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning American novel A Confederacy of Dunces, posthumously awarded to the author, John Kennedy Toole, eleven years after his death, may finally make it to the big screen with Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) as the odd leading man.
In the fifth attempt to make the film, director James Bobin (The Muppets) is in talks to adapt the cult classic and best-selling book, reports New York Magazine, with a script to be written by Phil Johnston, who co-wrote Alexander Payne's upcoming Nebraska.
The story, set in the 1960s in New Orleans, follows the misadventures of Ignatius J. Reilly, a bookish scoundrel who lives with his mother and must find employment.
The manuscript was published through the efforts of the writer's mother and author Walter Percy (The Moviegoer, Love in the Ruins), who spearheaded the project a decade after Toole committed suicide, despondent from not selling the book.
There have been a series of attempted starts but some believe the film is jinxed. In 1982, Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day) was set to adapt the book with John Belushi (Animal House) as Reilly but the comedic actor died of a drug overdose before production began.
Other attempts included casting John Candy (Planes, Trains and Automobiles) in 1994 and Chris Farley in 1997, who both subsequently died. And director Steven Soderbergh also wrote a version with Will Ferrell set for the lead role in 2005 until the project fell apart in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Now Confederency may finally come to pass more than 30 years later.
