2007

Test2. I've been trading emails back and forth with Chuck this week about various things. First he shot me an update on "Choke" and its status at The Sundance Film Festival this year:

Hello Dennis --

Turns out that "Choke" will get five showings at Sundance. The 21th through the 25th in different venues.

There's more to that email that I can't show you yet. ::evil grin::

Next, I asked Chuck about Francis Lawrence's (director of I Am Legend) recent quote about Survivor being his next project:

It's been a long while since I heard their statement of 'Survivor' as next-in-line. But they did recently re-buy the option for a new period of time.

The recent purchase Chuck talks about was a few months ago I believe. Which would definitely seem to back Lawrence's quote and intent. Hmm, looks like we could have a go-er here after all.

Time will tell.

Attention Writers: Chuck Palahniuk will be teaching the final week at the 2008 Clarion West Writers Workshop. Here is some information about the workshop from their official site:

The boys over at Twitch got the first still of Sam Rockwell in Choke!

With the announcement that Choke will be debuting at The Sundance Film Festival last week, you can bet we'll be seeing many more screenshots popping in soon.

Can't wait!

I actually knew about this last week, via an email from Chuck, but I wasn't sure I should post about it just yet. But seeing as how the news hit the internet yesterday about the 2008 Sundance Film Festival line-up, I figure you should all know. Here's the direct quote from Chuck:

The great news of last week was "Choke" got one of the slots for Sundance. It will most likely premier Jan. 17th thru 23. Clark Gregg and Beau Flynn are flying high because their film got one of the 16 slots available for 3700+ films submitted.

Well, in the wee hours of the night, when I wasn't looking, the pre-order page for Chuck's next book Snuff made it's way onto Amazon.com. It's slated to be released on May 20th, 2008. As always though, this information could change. Though I doubt it will.

Another author has broken onto the scene from the midst of Monday night workshops with none other than Chuck Palahniuk. First it was Monica Drake. Now comes Chelsea Cain, whose debut novel Heartsick is a dark thriller about a detective tracking a serial killer whose snatching teenage girls up off the streets of Portland. Check out Chuck's praise for the book:

"With Gretchen Lowell, Chelsea Cain gives us the most compelling, most original serial killer since Hannibal Lecter." - Chuck Palahniuk

Chelsea's publishers were nice enough to send us some hardcovers of the book. And in just reading the first page, it's safe to say I'm already hooked. But wait, it gets better. Chuck and Chelsea shared a sort of interview/discussion about writing. The full piece can be found on the audio book of 'Heartsick'.

This may be nothing, but Invisible Monsters popped up on the IMDB last week here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756666/. This project has long been in development with newcomer Jesse Peyronel behind the helm as writer and director. Jesse had a lot of success with a short film before impressing Chuck Palahniuk and his agent with his screenplay adaptation of Invisible Monsters. In fact, Chuck was so impressed that he fully endorsed Jesse's optioning of the project for one year to try and raise the money for it. It was during this year that all the rumors started. The one that stuck the most was that Jessica Biel would be starring as Shannon. Then Parker Posey's name began popping up too. And pretty soon, even Miramax Films had entered the mix. But when the year was up, and the option ran out, it seemed Monsters was no closer to a greenlight.

Some of those articles we saw appear online and on The Cult yesterday already mentioned this, but I have an inside scoop about the shooting of 'Choke' that began last week from someone who was actually there and witnessed it all.

From Angry Ritch (on MySpace):