John August and “How I Became a Famous Novelist”
One of the really ‘good guys’ in screenwriting ranks is John August. I can say this — without ever having actually met him — because August has written some fine movies including Go (1999), Big Fish (2003), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and for several years, he has kept up a fantastic screenwriting blog johnaugust.com.
So it’s nice to see this news item:
Writer-director John August has optioned Steve Hely’s novel “How I Became a Famous Novelist.”
August, who wrote “Go,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Big Fish,” will adapt and potentially direct the project.
A popular fiction biz satire, “Novelist” concerns a man who sets out to write an unabashedly commercial tome so he can be rich, famous and, most importantly, upstage his ex-girlfriend’s wedding.
“Like ‘Go,’ it’s about thinking you have the system all figured out, realizing you don’t, then faking it,” said August.
August goes into more detail about the book and his plans in this post on his blog:
Hely’s book has an unbelievably high joke-to-page ratio, the literary equivalent of a 30 Rock episode. (Which seems fitting, since Hely is now a writer on that show.)
The book tells the story of Pete Tarslaw, an ambitiously underachieving college grad who writes a shamelessly maudlin and derivative Great American Novel for the sole purpose of upstaging his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. When the book becomes a bestseller, he finds himself sucked into a strange coterie of mega-authors and their attendants.
I wrote that summary, but it omits something that makes reading the book so worthwhile: excerpts from all the other mega-authors’ books, such as Teeth of the Winged Lion by Nick Boyle. It’s hard to write well, but writing badly well is a special talent.
August goes on to describe how he happened upon the book and decided to option it himself. That’s right, he’s paying the option fee through his own prod co Quote-Unquote Films. All the more reason to drop by johnaugust.com and wish him well in the adaptation process!
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