They burst on to the scene with controversial documentary Catfish, and followed that up by delivering the third outing of the Paranormal Activity franchise. Now Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are moving away from docu-drama and found footage for an adaptation of Edward Abbey’s comic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Abbey’s 1975 book follows four men who are trying to turn the tide of over-development in the American West. While three swear a vow to avoid harming humans, animals, plants or rocks as they go about their bumbling acts of eco-sabotage on construction equipment and trains, the fourth, young Vietnam veteran Hayduke, is more a believer in the Things-Go-Boom school of protest.
“We’re excited and honoured to turn this book into a movie,” Joost and Schulman said in a statement picked up by Deadline. “People often ask us why we work together and as Edward Abbey used to say, ‘one man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain’t nothin’ can beat teamwork.”
Producers Edward R. Pressman and Gary Burden have been trying to wrangle the tale on to the screen for 15 years now, and seem to think that Joost and Schulman are what the project needs.
The writing-directing duo, though, will first keep working on Paranormal Activity 4, which is in pre-production and set for an October 19 release in the UK.