Rockwell & Huston learn ‘Choke’ hold

Among the advantages of being an actor who is casting the leads for his directorial debut is being able to call up buddies an asking for that favor or having the ability of knowing first-hand who can deliver on screen. In a casting choice that seems fit, as recently proven in his performance in Snow Angels, if there is someone who knows how to plays addiction it is the off-center talent of thesp Sam Rockwell. Rockwell and Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald and Brad Henke are climbing aboard the Chuck Palahniuk novel to big screen adaptation of Choke – a film that actor Clark Gregg has been prepping for a while now. Principal photography begins this week in New Jersey. 

Based on the New York Times best-seller, this falls in the vein of the black comedy and follows Victor Mancini (Rockwell), a sex addict who works as a Colonial War re-enactor and runs a con scheme that involves deliberately choking in restaurants and attaching himself parasitically to his rescuers, all to fund his mother's (Huston) care at a private mental hospital. He is forced to address his intimacy issues when he falls in love with his mother's doctor and discovers that he is unable to perform with the one woman he actually likes.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Contrafilm's Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson are producing, along with ATO Pictures' Johnathan Dorfman and Temple Fennell. Mike S. Ryan, Derrick Tseng and Gary Ventimiglia are executive producing. Contrafilm's Lisa Zambri will serve as associate producer.