500 Days Of Summer Director/Writers Developing The Spectacular Now
500 Days of Summer seems to be the big buzz film of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Yesterday I got a chance to sit down with director Marc Webb (full interview will be posted later in the week), who slipped a bit of news regarding his possible follow-up. Marc revealed that his is developing a big screen adaptation of Tim Tharp's The Spectacular Now, which is being written by 500 Days of Summer scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber:
"Neustadter and Weber are adapting a book called The Spectacular Now for Fox Searchlight," Webb told /Film. "It's a really fantastic novel about a 17 year old charm monger who drinks too much. And its about how he's negotiating the world of growing up. It's a very realistic portrayl of what it's like to be a kid. And it has a very frank depiction of sex, alcohol and that sort of thing."
Webb was clear to mention that it's currently being written, and there is nothing "locked and loaded" for his next project, despite the Hollywood trade papers announcement that he will be making a film called Age of Rage, which was described as "Children of Men meets Lord of the Flies".
"Children of Men? I don't know about that..." commented Webb. I mentioned to Webb that every upcoming sci-fi film is trying to sell themselves based on a Children of Men comparison, and Webb responded "It's because it's a brilliant fucking movie. I mean, who doesn't want to be... you know. Ours is sort of this post apocalyptic thing. It's in the early stages, so I can't really talk about it because its not written. I don't even know how it got out there. I wrote a treatment for it and I'm working on the story." But Webb is clear to point out that the project is "probably going to take a while to get through". So it's very possible that we might see The Spectacular Now or something else entirely next. You can read the official book description of The Spectacular Now below:
"SUTTER KEELY. HE'S the guy you want at your party. He'll get everyone dancing. He'll get everyone in your parents' pool. Okay, so he's not exactly a shining academic star. He has no plans for college and will probably end up folding men's shirts for a living. But there are plenty of ladies in town, and with the help of Dean Martin and Seagram's V.O., life's pretty fabuloso, actually. Until the morning he wakes up on a random front lawn, and he meets Aimee. Aimee's clueless. Aimee is a social disaster. Aimee needs help, and it's up to the Sutterman to show Aimee a splendiferous time and then let her go forth and prosper. But Aimee's not like other girls, and before long he's in way over his head. For the first time in his life, he has the power to make a difference in someone else's life—or ruin it forever."
The Spectacular Now is available on Amazon for $11.55.