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Fox Searchlight Buys Choke For $5 Million!
In what they're already calling the best sale of the festival, Fox Searchlight as of 5am this morning, has bought Clark Gregg's adaptation of Choke for a reported $5 million! The film had its world premiere last night at the Racquet Club Theatre, and Chuck Palahniuk was in attendance as the film got a roaring applause.
Here's a quote from Alex Billington, a critic at one of my favorite movie sites, FirstShowing.net:
I caught the world premiere of Choke last night and certainly will confirm that it is one hell of a great film. It's no Fight Club, but it is a Chuck Palahniuk movie in its own right delivering a solid story with great comedy and a perfect performance by Sam Rockwell. It's not my own favorite movie of the fest, but I couldn't be happier seeing this get picked up by the best indie distributor out there. Fox Searchlight has put out some of the biggest indie hits - Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno - and now it's time for Choke!
Folks, this could be the best news we've reported on the site in years. I could not have thought of a better way this could have turned out. I just sent Chuck a text, congratulating him. I can't wait to hear what he says about all of this. It must've been one hell of a night.
Cheers for Choke, Chuck, and a wonderful job by Clark Gregg and his cast and crew!
Copyright 2008 - A Writers Cult, LLC
Fantastic news. I really need to catch Juno, don't I? Everyone's raving about it. I've got work to do tonight... ah, fuck it. I'll watch Juno. I'm half resigned to getting kicked out of college already. $5 is a lot of money.
Edit: $5 is not a lot of money, $5million is a lot of money.
Edit: I went to the "cinema" and watched Juno. Wasn't bad at all. I still think Little Miss Sunshine was better, though I liked Juno plenty, but Little Miss Sunshine was utterly fantastic for me.
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES...GREAT NEWSS!!!!! love to hear it.
yay chuck...yay us...yay everyone.
I just saw the 8:30 am showing this morning at the Racquet Club Theatre and it was awesome! I've been a fan of Chuck Palahniuk's for a long time and I wondered if a movie version of Choke could ever really include much of what was in the book. The movie does not disappoint! It was laugh-out-loud hilarious and Chuck, Clark Gregg, and Brad William Henke were all kind enough to discuss the movie and do a Q&A afterwards. I'm glad to hear Fox Searchlight bought the film since that means we can expect a theatrical release and, more importantly, a DVD down the line. Maybe the DVD will include one scene missing from the film -- the orangutan trained to shove chestnuts you-know-where. Genius! And Chuck, sign me up for the Princess Di tunnel film! :)
Oh man Im really excited now! I had read a different review on the movie and it sounded like itd be good but not amazing. Now hearing that from an actual Chuck fan ..and from someone who has read the book as well.. im realllly excited to see how the movie came out..
I wonder how long until they release it into theaters
and If they had the orangutan and the chestnuts anywhere on the dvd version i would absolutely DIE laughing.
I cant wait!
Wow, 5 mil. that seems cheap to me. Maybe they get a cut of the proceeds? Or something? What was the production cost of Choke? Dennis, what do indie films get sold for? Entourage made it look like a lot ;-)
Great stuff. I saw it at 8:30 this morning too. Chuck is one fantastic and dynamic speaker. I can't wait to hopefully hear from him much more often in the future.
You will love this movie. It is a departure from the book in a lot of ways, to be sure. Chuck's first thing he said to Gregg was not to be too faithful to the book. Gregg talked a lot about how he really appreciated the freedom. Chuck had nothing but good things to say about the movie. The whole experience was like a party he said...
He also answered someone's question about HAUNTED being a movie...and that there were talks with the executive producer of SIX FEET UNDER to turn the HAUNTED stories into some kind of episodes for a miniseries or something. Interesting idea, I thought. He said nothing is anything close to definite on that though...so don't expect anything. Interesting nonetheless.
It was beyond my wildest dreams to be a part of the SUNDANCE experience and the CHOKE premiere. Enjoy the movie when you get a chance to see it!
they made it for just 2 mil, so they're already in the profit.
Good to hear! As to Haunted being a series, I have mixed feelings. While it great to get Chuck's work exposure, no one could ever make Guts or Exodus or Ritual into stronger stories than they already are by changing the medium. While it may be good, it wouldn't be Haunted. I'm going to try to view Choke through that lense, not going to see 'The Choke Movie', but rather a film based around Choke.
So does this news guarantee a nationwide theatrical release?
Choke
A Fox Searchlight release of an ATO Pictures presentation in association with Wild Bunch of a Contrafilm/ATO production. Produced by Beau Flynn, Tripp Vinson, Johnathan Dorfman, Temple Fennell. Executive producers, Mike S. Ryan, Derrick Tseng, Gary Ventimiglia, Mary Vernieu. Directed by Clark Gregg. Screenplay, Gregg, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
With: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke, Clark Gregg, Bijou Phillips, Gillian Jacobs, Jonah Bobo, Paz de la Huerta, Viola Harris, Joel Grey.
By DENNIS HARVEY
Thesp turned helmer-scenarist Clark Gregg sets himself a formidable task for his first feature effort: Adapting the manic, farcical, disturbing world of lit cult idol Chuck Palahniuk. That worked (artistically if not commercially) for David Fincher in "Fight Club" nearly a decade ago; "Choke," a much more modest effort, doesn't suffer so much from downscaled production values as from direction and packaging that just don't match Palahniuk's imaginative brio in cinematic terms. Nonetheless, fan curiosity should edge pic into the black a lot sooner than "Club" managed. Fox Searchlight pickup does score plenty of laughs -- albeit in a more conventional "outrageous" indie comedy mode than the source material promised.
Sam Rockwell, adding another distinctive portrait to his gallery of oddballs and outsiders, plays the simultaneously resourceful and dead-ended protag. Med school dropout Victor Mancini earns minimum wage as an "historical interpreter" at a New England theme park. More specifically, he spends his working day playing "the backbone of colonial America -- an indentured Irish servant" in a recreated 18th century village where a whole staff of bored twenty- to thirtysomethings portray milkmaids, gentry and redcoats.
His best pal is big, jovial workmate Denny (Brian William Henke). After hours, they both attend 12-step meetings for sex addicts -- Denny being a chronic masturbator and Victor in constant pursuit of the perfect mental "nothingness" experienced at orgasm.
Truth is, neither of them seem able to stay in "recovery" for more than a few days. Victor routinely leaves mid-meeting to copulate vigorously in the bathroom with fellow attendee Nico (Paz de la Huerta).
No doubt the key reason for all this is mommy dearest Ida (Angelica Huston), a paranoiac criminal nonconformist who raised him alone, on the run, in frequently extreme ways. (One of her bright ideas got him mauled by a lynx.)
As seen in flashbacks, she frequently dumped him into foster homes when her delusions (or institutionalization) necessitated, only to pluck him again from these fleeting glimpses of ordinary life.
Decades later, Ida resides in a women's private care facility that Victor pays for through an unusual scam -- he stages his own near-choking death in restaurants so some noble bystander can rescue him via the Heimlich Maneuver and feel heroic. The benefactors frequently later send him money out of further concern for his well-being. It's a neat if somewhat perilous racket.
Ida no longer recognizes Victor, as she's slipping away from dementia. New ward physician Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald) has a curious notion about how she might be saved that involves Victor inseminating the hot young medico.
Palahniuk's antic absurdism is duly present, but the hurtling pace and barely-underlying nihilism that transferred to screen so vividly in "Fight Club" aren't much in evidence here. Gregg (who's quite funny as the colonial village's autocratic manager Lord High Charlie) and collaborators come up with a routine bright look, uninspired setpiece stagings and an uneven performance tenor. They add up to diverting bad taste comedics rather than the novel's truly skewed parallel universe.
To be sure, certain narrative ideas and verbal tropes will still tickle tome's fans and may strike the gamely uninitiated as uproarious.
Among the cast, Rockwell and Henke best grasp the desired tone. Tech and design contribs are adequate, but could have been more assertive.
Camera (color, HD cam), Tim Orr; editor, Joe Klotz; music, Nathan Larson; production designer, Roshelle Berliner; art director, Matteo De Cosmo; set decorator, Kate Foster; costume designer, Catherine George; sound (Dolby Digital), Christopher Gebert; supervising sound editor, Richard Taylor; sound designer, Albert Gasser; unit production manager, Tony Hernandez; assistant directors, Stuart J.C. Williams, Nicholas R. Bell; casting, Mary Vernieu. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 21, 2008. Running time: 92 MIN.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/01/22/...-review-choke/
Sundance Movie Review: Choke
Posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm by: Peter Sciretta
I liked the last two Harry Potter films more than people who hadn’t read the books. I’ve also noticed that the only people that seemed to like The Da Vinci Code were those who had read the Dan Brown books. Is it because they were hardcore fans with too much time invested, or is it that they could fill in all the wonderful blanks which were cut to take the story to screen?
Chuck Palahniuk is my favorite author, and I’ve been waiting a long time to see Choke adapted to the big screen (and even longer for my Palahniuk favorite Survivor). Most people know Palahniuk as the author of Fight Club, which was adapted to the screen by David Fincher. A favorite of many people of my generation, Palahniuk has developed a huge cult following among young men and women. Choke is probably my fourth favorite book of the bunch, yet I’m shocked that this is the second movie adaptation. Especially considering the dark nature of the book which includes sex addiction and religious themes that is likely to upset any serious catholic.
Truth is that you couldn’t make Choke into a movie unless you did it independently on a small budget. And that is what they did. Made for $3.4 million, and filmed over the course of 25 shooting days in New Jersey, Choke looks nothing like Fincher’s film. I must admit, it doesn’t look like anything I ever imagined it would be, probably due to the budgetary limitations. That said, I loved every minute of this movie.
Sam Rockwell is everything I imagined Victor Mancini would and could be. He plays the part perfectly, and is the reason why this film works so well. Kelly Macdonald is wonderful as Paige Marshall. The cast is the best it ever could have been.
As a fanboy of the book, I’m finding it easier to voice my minor nitpicky complaints over offering up praise. So let me get through a couple of my issues. The book’s opening chapter is one of the best opening chapter’s I’ve ever read. The narrator attempts to convince the reader not to read the book. That his life is not worth reading about. I think they missed a huge opportunity by not translating this into a “Leave the theater now, shut off the DVD, this movie isn’t worth watching” opening voiceover. Also, writer/director Clark Gregg decided to abandon use of the voiceover shortly after the first act. I think this is a big mistake as the voiceover in the novel is one of the reasons it was so great. And this is evident in the sequences which involve voice over early on in the film. I’m not quite sure that the flashback sequences to Vincent’s childhood was well explained for those who had not read the book. And I also found some of the musical score (not soundtrack) to be too loud and corny. I hope they also get rid of the interstitial they use between flashbacks and flashfowards, as it seemed way too cheesy for this type of movie.
Choke shocks, offends, entertains and might even make you cry. Clark Gregg’s adaptation will please fans and non-fans alike. At only 85 minutes, I only wish the film could have been longer. I hope that some distributor has the guts (no pun intended) to pick this film up and give it a proper release.
/Film Rating: 8 out of 10
It's been nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.