confederacy of dunces movie

My very favorite book of all time appears to finally be coming to the screen. I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to it or not — in the right hands, it could be great, but the stakes are awfully high. The risk of my pyloric valve slamming shut at the sight of it is significant.
(To give you an idea how deep my devotion runs to A Confederacy of Dunces: the two partitions of my hard drive are named Ignatius and Gonzalez, my external hard drive is named Mancuso, and my laptop is named Miss Trixie, all characters in the novel. For a geek like me, that’s love.)

10 thoughts on “confederacy of dunces movie”

  1. The story of John Kennedy Toole is rather depressing.
    As for the book, I have yet to succeed in reading it. This is due to my own deficiency. I have all but forgotten how to sit still and read paper for more than ten minutes at a time.
    It sucks, really.
    Perhaps now is the time to pick up Dunces….

  2. It is a fantastic and moving book, and I’m not sure I want to see it make it to the big screen either. I think the hardest part will be to find an actor to play Ignatius. Oh, I hope, I hope they do the book justice.

  3. Yeah, finding the right actor for Ignatius is the key. John Goodman was the name I heard most in the past — I’m not sure how he’d do. Some folks lobby for John McConnell, the New Orleans actor who’s apparently been great in local stage versions.
    Soderburgh and Co. need to remember Ignatius is only 30 in the book, and I think you need an actor in that age range to illustrate the delayed adolescence well. I’d think Philip Seymour Hoffman should get a shot.
    Gambit, the N.O. weekly, had a great article last year on the actors they’d cast in the role, but it’s been taken down from their web site for some reason. (This was the link.)

  4. P. S. Hoffman gets my vote as well. He’s the only one I can think of that would really put his soul into the part.

  5. I re-read it each Summer. John Waters has lobbied for 20 years to direct the film version. I doubt he will get it, but he would be fantastic.

  6. yes, waters would be great. for some reason i think terry gilliam might be a good director for it. for ignatious i nominate john turturro (+40lbs).

  7. I’m with Charles…adding it to my list. The stuff I’ve been reading lately is just too serious. I need something with a little more humor.

  8. i’ve been working on C of D for months now, and it just doesn’t seem to keep my interest for more than twenty minutes before i get bored and pick up another book. i want to finish it. i really do. but i just don’t think it’s as funny as it’s cracked up to be. you should check out Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. now THAT guy is funny.

  9. That’s interesting — I’ve tried plenty of times to get into Infinite Jest, and I can’t get past p. 70 or so. (All that damned tennis.) I’m sort of iffy on Wallace — some of his shorter stuff I’ve liked, some I haven’t. To each his own.

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