Dark Comedy Heaven: Fox Searchlight Unites Dan Clowes and Alexander Payne on ‘Wilson’

Lifelong cynics will most certainly love the plan that Fox Searchlight just hatched. Call this a marriage made in dark comedy heaven, names Alexander Payne and Dan Clowes are being mentioned in the same sentence as Searchlight appears to be giving Payne a vote of confidence once again by looking to move him from The Descendants to Wilson — the Dan Clowes graphic novel. Payne’s Ad Hominem will produce with Josh Donen, on behalf of Sam Raimi’s Stars Road. Clowes will pen the screenplay. 

Gist: You can find a snippet of the graphic novel here, basically Wilson tells the story of an opinionated middle-aged loner who loves his dog and maybe nobody else. He begins a quest to find human connection, badgering friends and strangers into a series of one-sided conversations that get derailed by his brutally honest sense of humor. When his father dies, Wilson is really alone and sets out to find his ex-wife in hopes of rekindling their long dead relationship. In the process, he discovers he has a teen daughter, who was born after the marriage ended and given up for adoption. He becomes determined to reconnect all three of them as a family. You know that can’t end well.

Worth Noting: Speaking of Clowes…anyone know what has happened to Migel Munya – the Clowes scripted project that was based on an idea from the father and son team of the Michel and Paul Gondry?

Do We Care?: We dug specific moments but weren’t rabid fans of Clowes’ adapted g-novels such as Ghost World and Art School Confidential, but this project singles out one underdog and pairs him up with stuff we didn’t get to see in a certain Jarmusch film. We are stoked for this one as it will pretty much set up Payne with what he does best: grumpy, middle-aged men a la Sideways, About Schmidt.