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Will Universal ‘Choke’ on Palahniuk?
“Art never comes from happiness.” So says Victor Mancini’s mother just a few pages into Chuck Palahniuk’s novel “Choke”. Victor is a deeply disturbed medical school dropout, with sex addiction problems and a severely unhealthy relationship with his mother. By day he works at a colonial era styled theme park playing an Irish indentured servant, and by night he trolls sex-addict meetings….to get dates. His mother’s history of melodramatic parenting has ended her in a care home suffering from Alzheimer’s and left Victor so attention starved that he deliberately chokes on food in restaurants in order to get “hugged” (via the Heimlich maneuver). Sound like the making of a great movie? Well Universal Pictures apparently thinks so.
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“Art never comes from happiness.” So says Victor Mancini’s mother just a few pages into Chuck Palahniuk’s novel “Choke”. Victor is a deeply disturbed medical school dropout, with sex addiction problems and a severely unhealthy relationship with his mother. By day he works at a colonial era styled theme park playing an Irish indentured servant, and by night he trolls sex-addict meetings….to get dates. His mother’s history of melodramatic parenting has ended her in a care home suffering from Alzheimer’s and left Victor so attention starved that he deliberately chokes on food in restaurants in order to get “hugged” (via the Heimlich maneuver). Sound like the making of a great movie? Well Universal Pictures apparently thinks so.
The studio has signed on for the rights to produce the film version of Choke with Paul Bernbaum slated to scribe the screenplay. Bernbaum’s most recent soon-to-be released Hollywoodland, which explored the mysterious death of George Reeves, television’s original “Superman”. In taking on Palahnuik’s story, Bernbaum is setting the bar fairly high for himself. Fans of Palahnuik have developed a near mystical cult status around the author and his works. This will not be Bernbaum’s first excursion into the genre however; his current work “Next” is in post-production.
The true challenge for Universal is going to be holding true to Palahnuik’s work, which his fans will demand, while avoiding an NC-17 death stamp. The book’s graphic detail, “dude-esque” dialogue, sex-aholic and child abuse references and scenes, will be extremely difficult to tame for the big screen. The true test of this films comparison with it’s more weathered and respected big brother “Fight Club” will be determined by time and the director that Universal taps to helm this project.