McG has not been having the best time of it since Terminator Salvation, the film that was supposed to see him rise like a phoenix from the flames of fanboy hate for the Charlie’s Angels sequel. But Salvation, while moderately successful, didn’t win over all the critics and now the rights getting sold have thwarted his big plan for more films. Then 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea sank at Disney, only to be – assuming he actually signs on – hauled up by David Fincher. And let’s not even talk about McSpaced. But he’s got action comedy This Means War bubbling away in pre-production and he’s still a prolific producer. His latest pick up, though, has a name that jokey headline writers will be killing themselves laughing over: the rights to Kody Keplinger’s novel The DUFF.
A coming-of-age tale set in a US high school, Keplinger’s book follows a 17-year-old who comes to realise that she’s a classic “DUFF” – a Designated Ugly Fat Friend – and tries to hold on to her sense of identity while avoiding teen cliques and dealing with a troubled family life.
The book isn’t even on shelves yet, but the 20-year-old author is already generating plenty of buzz and such a quick deal for the film rights won’t do anything to change that.
There’s no word yet on whether Mr McGinty Nichol will pick up the directorial reigns, but it’ll have to wait a while anyway since there’s no script in place and he’ll be busy with War and the 10,000 other films and TV shows his Wonderland producing at the same time.
Our only real problem with the planned film is that it's not about Homer Simpson's favourite alcoholic beverage.