Nordling here.
I've read A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole a couple of times. It's one of the greatest comic novels ever written - if not the greatest - and yet I can't help but feel a little concerned that it's going to be adapted into a film. Vulture is reporting that the very-long-in-development-hell project is going to be made, with James Bobin (THE MUPPETS) at the helm. Okay, so far, so good. Screenwriter Phil Johnston (Cedar Rapids) will have the task of adapting the admittedly difficult material. And Zach Galifianakis will be playing the Godfather of all Talkbackers, Ignatius J. Reilly.
If you haven't read the book, Reilly is a slob of a man, who thinks he's so very smarter than he really is; lazy to a fault and living with his mother. He goes to movies and makes fun of them (sound familiar?), and only enjoys himself when he's doing absolutely nothing. He eschews the modern world (or at least the early 1960s) for a time when things were much simpler, but Ignatius is often thrown into turmoil when he is forced to interact with other people. I have no doubt that Galifianakis can nail the part. My concern is that frankly, too much time has passed for this story to be effective.
We live in a world full of Ignatius Reillys. And although A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES is a wonderful book, written in a time that is much less complicated than it is now, I have a hard time seeing how it could be adapted successfully. What is uproariously funny on the page will be extremely difficult to make compelling onscreen. The book is a masterwork, of that there is no doubt. I followed this when Harold Ramis was involved, and Steven Soderbergh, and David Gordon Green, and although James Bobin is no slouch, and knows comedy (FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS, anyone?) I can't help but think that time has simply moved on and that the book may not be relevant to some people. The New Orleans of the book has changed, for better or worse. Depending on the supporting cast and how Bobin, Johnston, and Galifianakis approach the material, this could be wonderful or a disaster. I hope that they give the material the respect it deserves, and that audiences unfamiliar with the book will embrace it.
