As he presses on with his attempt to generate more projects than any ten men could reasonably make, James Franco really seems intent on adapting a wide variety of novels for the big screen. He’s turned works by William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy into screenplays and has reportedly just optioned Chuck Palahniuk’s **Rant.
According to the author himself, as reported by Lit Reactor, Franco will tackle his work in the future. “As of last night we've finalized a deal for James Franco to option my novel Rant,” says Palahniuk. “Details about the casting, shooting and a proposed release date will be forthcoming. Hurray. After the opportunity to work with Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Sam Rockwell, I can't imagine a more exciting actor to work with than Franco.”
Rant, which Palahniuk published in 2008, is told in the form of an oral biography, with accounts of the life of Buster Landru “Rant” Casey. Living in a dystopian future, he’s born with his senses of smell and taste far outstripping those of normal people. He ends up moving to a big city that divides its population into two classes: respectable Daytimers and oppressed Nighttimers, who take part in a sport called “Party Crashing” where drivers smash into other cars bearing certain markers – a Christmas tree, for example. Oh, and he starts a nationwide rabies epidemic that becomes a zombie-style wave of attacks...
It’s certainly loaded with Palahniuk’s usual fizzy, dark ideas and mordant humour, and quite different from a lot of what Franco has worked on in the past. No pressure that every Palahniuk adaptation lives in the shadow of Fight Club, Mr. F.