If negotiations go as planned, Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) will write the script for the big-screen adaption of his graphic novel Wilson, with Woody Harrelson playing the cranky title character and Laura Dern as his ex-wife.
The Hollywood Reporter, which notes the film is scheduled to begin filming next month in Minneapolis, summarizes the plot thusly:
Clowes’ story told of a middle-aged misanthrope (Harrelson) who seeks out his ex-wife (Dern), a scarred drug abuser, after the death of his father. When he learns of a teenaged daughter, born after his divorce, he tries to force them all to join him in his last gasping stab at a family.
The New York Times review of the graphic novel, which came out in 2010, offers a little more insight into the character, and suggests that Harrelson’s casting is pretty damn on point:
He is a rich mix of states and traits: lonely, alienated, obsessed with his dog and the mistakes of his past, unjustifiably smug, genuinely funny, nettlesome, underhanded, empathetic and always all too human.
Craig Johnson, who made last year’s acerbic family drama The Skeleton Twins, is slated to direct; Alexander Payne and Sam Raimi are among Wilson’s list of producers.
Top image: cover art from Wilson by Daniel Clowes.
