Teased by then-director (now producer) Alexander Payne way back in 2011, a big screen adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel Wilson is on the way with Clowes himself providing the screenplay and The Skeleton Twins’ Craig Johnson set to direct. The Hollywood Reporter now brings word that the project is set to star Woody Harrelson (The Hunger Games) and Laura Dern (Wild). Cameras should roll on the production next month in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Published in 2010, Wilson is described on Clowes’ official site as follows:
Meet Wilson, an opinionated middle-aged loner who loves his dog and quite possibly no one else. In an ongoing quest to find human connection, he badgers friend and stranger alike into a series of one-sided conversations, punctuating his own lofty discursions with a brutally honest, self-negating sense of humor. After his father dies, Wilson, now irrevocably alone, sets out to find his ex-wife with the hope of rekindling their long-dead relationship, and discovers he has a teenage daughter, born after the marriage ended and given up for adoption.Wilson eventually forces all three to reconnect as a family—a doomed mission that will surely, inevitably backfire.
Clowes previously teamed with director Terry Zwigoff for a pair of features. As he’s doing with Wilson, Clowes adapted his own Ghost World for the 2011 film starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson and Steve Buscemi. He also wrote Zwigoff’s 2006 feature Art School Confidential.
Payne is producing alongside JIm Burke, Josh Donen, Sam Raimi and Jim Taylor.
(Photo Credit: Ivan Nikolov / Alberto Reyes / WENN.com)
