Choke

[MacGuffin]

Is 'Choke' Finally Going Into Production?
Source: Cinematical

Considering how popular Chuck Palahniuk's Tyler Durden was in Fight Club, it's no surprise that another of his notable antiheroes is making his way to the big screen. This time, it is Victor Mancini and Choke. Last August, Erik posted that Paul Bernbaum (Hollywoodland) was going to pen the script, but that was the last we heard. However, now we've got a whole mess of info straight from Palahniuk's official website, some of which refutes the earlier report. The webmaster, Dennis, posted a whole bunch of news that he says came straight from the writer himself.

In an email message, Palahniuk reportedly said that production on Choke would start on May 18. Clark Gregg has been nabbed as the director -- he's the guy who wrote What Lies Beneath, and who appears regularly on TV's The New Adventures of Old Christine. The actor/writer apparently adapted the screenplay and has been on the project for years (Where did Bernbaum come from then?), which is probably why he's getting the chance to helm it. But that's not the only news. It seems that Sam Rockwell has been cast as the fake-choker Victor. As for who would play his mother, Palahniuk says that it's coming down to Glenn Close, Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. I would imagine this casting would depend on how much of the past and Victor's youth they plan to cover. Close is the right age for the present-day, but the other two could cover the foster kidnappings more realistically.

[MacGuffin]

2 get stuck with Gregg on 'Choke'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston are starring in "Choke," an adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel that marks the directorial debut of actor Clark Gregg, who also wrote the adaptation.

Contrafilm's Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson are producing, along with ATO Pictures' Johnathan Dorfman and Temple Fennell.

Kelly Macdonald ("No Country for Old Men") and Brad Henke ("In the Valley of Elah") also star.

"Choke," published in 2001, was the first New York Times best-seller from Palahniuk, who penned "Fight Club."

"Choke" is a black comedy that 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.

With credits in dozens of features and television series, Gregg is best known for his work in front of the camera, but he said he has been wanting to adapt the book for years.

"It's a tricky adaptation because like a lot of Chuck's work, it operates in a heightened satirical, dark world, yet this one is one of his black romantic comedies, so getting the tone right took me some time," Gregg said.

When he got the script working, he landed a key role on CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" last year that caused the shoot to get pushed back. (He plays Julia Louis-Dreyfus' ex-husband.)

Principal photography begins this week in New Jersey.

[MacGuffin]

On The 'Choke' Set With Chuck Palahniuk, Sam Rockwell — And Dave Matthews?!
Rockwell stars as a conniving, sex-obsessed, colonial theme-park worker.
Source: MTV

CEDAR GROVE, New Jersey — It's just starting to rain as Chuck Palahniuk guides me through an abandoned mental hospital late on a Friday night. And he couldn't be more excited. Now to be fair, perhaps the euphoria is warranted. We are, after all, on location for the filming of "Choke," Palahniuk's best-selling subversive novel about a man who takes to forcing food down his gullet so as to become the beneficiary of clueless good Samaritans.

Palahniuk is an odd duck. Put it this way, about 30 minutes earlier when I first met the unassuming, 45-year-old "Fight Club" author, he opened our conversation by excitedly telling me how three crew members of the production have recently been victims of biting accidents (two involving dogs, one a disgruntled girlfriend). He says all this through a grin and with such soft-spoken gentleness I easily could have thought he was telling me a bedtime story.

That incongruity between the sweet outside and the sinister interior shouldn't be surprising given the subjects the author traffics in: sex, obsession, violence — and did I mention sex? Sam Rockwell stars in this latest book-to-film translation (due in 2008) as Victor Mancini, a colonial theme-park worker with "a lot of mommy issues" (Rockwell's words, not mine). Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston plays the formidable mother Ida Mancini, who is dying in a hospital bed throughout much of the story (the former Essex County Hospital subbing for Palahniuk's St. Anthony's).

This is the writer's fourth day on the set but he's already picked out his favorite moment of the shoot: watching Victor force-feed his mom chocolate pudding. "I watched Sam do that to Anjelica over and over, and every time she would have to spit it all out into a bucket," Palahniuk says. "When she was done, Anjelica came up to me in her hospital gown with pudding all over her face and said, 'This is all your fault.' "

There's a strange energy on the set tonight. Power failures on two occasions haven't soured spirits, nor has the increasingly crazy weather, a mix of 90-degree heat (abetted by ruthless humidity) and the occasional thunderstorm. And then there's the bizarre assembly of guests dropping by. "Choke" director Clark Gregg's wife, Jennifer Grey, has been circling the action with their 5-year-old daughter in tow (Grey's father Joel plays the head of a sex addict group in the film). And director David Gordon Green, coming off his own shoot for "The Pineapple Express", has been chatting with his friend, cinematographer Tim Orr. Meanwhile, "Grindhouse" star Marley Shelton sits in front of a monitor watching playback of a scene alongside her producer husband.

Then there's the gentleman standing beside us, who I point out to Palahniuk. "That's Dave Matthews?" he asks me incredulously, as I inform him that the musician is one of the backers of the film via the production company, ATO. Soon the odd pair share a moment in the sweltering gymnasium that's currently doubling as the interior of a plane. Palahniuk's editor later admits to me that he had no idea that the tall man who identified himself as David earlier was in fact Dave Matthews.

"Let's get Chuck in here," Gregg says. It's a last-minute decision for the first-time feature director (best known for his acting in "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and writing of "What Lies Beneath") to get the mastermind of the story in for a cameo. "I always wanted to get him in there and all of a sudden I had this empty airplane," he explains.

The rain is really coming down now, beating the roof of the gym with a deafening power. But the sound doesn't interfere with the scene, one in which Rockwell simply has to get up from his airline seat and walk out of the frame. What we're not seeing is what goes on in the plane's lavatory — a scene that one of the film's producers has described to me as Victor's origin scene, which takes place before he has discovered he's a sex addict. Waging war with the sound of the rain is a portable stereo playing "Locomotion." Gregg tells me this was Rockwell's idea. Clearly energized by the music, Rockwell jokingly humps part of the set after he walks out of camera range on the final take. It's not quite Radiohead's "Creep" (which Palahniuk wrote the book to), but it gets Rockwell where he needs to be.

It's day 20 of the shoot ("Trying to shoot a movie like this in 25 days is crazy," says Gregg) and the last night for Rockwell. He sounds simultaneously saddened to move on and relieved. "I like Victor a lot but it's probably time to shed him," the actor says, comparing the character to a modern-day Hamlet. "It's about a guy who's going from boy to man. He's trying to let go of his mother and say goodbye to being a boy. It's very Freudian."

Which of course brings us to sex, a subject very much on Victor's mind on virtually every deliciously dirty page of the book. And the film looks to be no different. "The sexuality in it is ferocious and comedic," Rockwell says. "It's pretty wild." Gregg calls it "unapologetically edgy, thought-provoking, outspoken material." Edgy would also be the proper word for the gift that crew members are receiving courtesy of the production. Palahniuk gleefully shows off a sex toy that figures prominently in the book and film. He brags that he's gotten Rockwell to sign his.

Despite its short shooting schedule and small budget (somewhere between three and four million dollars), "Choke" is aiming high in terms of ambition. "We're aspiring to make a movie like 'Boogie Nights,' 'Punch Drunk Love' or 'The Fisher King.' Very epic films," Rockwell says.

Make no mistake; this is not "Fight Club." Palahniuk says the production feels "entirely different" and that Gregg and Rockwell are getting along much better than that film's director and star (David Fincher and Edward Norton). Eschewing the famed Fincher technique of shooting dozens of takes for the simplest shots, Gregg's approach is practically run-and-gun, nearly always getting what he needs in two or three takes. "This is a very different film from 'Fight Club,' " Rockwell says. "It's much more tongue in cheek. It's a lighter film. It has a different kind of intensity."

Reverence for Palahniuk's material is evident from all involved and the production looks to be a faithful adaptation down to the author's unique first-person narration. Still, there will be differences, and Palahniuk for one is happy about them. Describing the addition of a key scene between Victor and Ida in the first act, he says, "This is like one more rewrite."

[MacGuffin]

Twitchfilm.net has posted the first still from Clark Gregg's (What Lies Beneath) big-screen version of Choke, Chuck Palahniuk's novel about sex-addiction, Alzheimer's, and a man who makes a living by pretending to choke in crowded restaurants. Sam Rockwell stars as Victor Mancini, the sex-addicted con man who is struggling to pay his mother's medical bills -- it almost sounds sweet if you leave out ... well, practically everything since usually when people think Palahniuk they definitely aren't thinking 'aww' (its usually more along the lines of; 'eww').

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

[picolas]

i've lowered my expectations a bit. it was a mistake to have rockwell look into the camera and say something sarcastic so early in the trailer.

[MacGuffin]

Red Band Trailer

[MacGuffin]

Radiohead pen new Palahniuk score 
Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Radiohead have written the score for the film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's 2001 book Choke, the author has revealed to the BBC.

Palahniuk's 1996 novel Fight Club was made into a film starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.

Choke has also been adapted for the big screen and stars Sam Rockwell.

Speaking to 6 Music, Palahniuk said he listened to Radiohead while writing the book, and it was "incredible" the band had written the film score.

Final credits

"Clark Gregg [Choke director]... knew that I'd written Choke while listening to [Radiohead's 1993 debut album] Pablo Honey, with Creep over and over and over," Palahniuk told the Shaun Keaveny Breakfast Show.

"So Clark got Radiohead to contribute a song; to write a song for the very end of the movie, the final credits.

"Apparently Radiohead liked the movie so much, they've written the score."

Asked if he felt honoured, Palahniuk said: "I quit believing in my own life at this point! My life is just too incredible to be believable anymore. It's a living dream."

Choke is due to be released in November.

[matt35mm]

Sorry to rain on this, but:

NO RADIOHEAD SCORE FOR CHOKE, RECKONER INCLUDED
Source: ateaseweb.com

Now that was an exciting couple of hours. In an interview early this Morning on BBC 6 Music's breakfast show, author Chuck Palahniuk 'revealed' that Radiohead did the score for the film adaption of his novel 'Choke'. Industry sources deny the band's score for the film.

The film, directed by Clark Gregg, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year featuring a score by Nathan Larson (of Shudder To Think) and that hasn't changed. The film however does have a Radiohead song in the film's closing credits, which is 'Reckoner' from the band's latest album 'In Rainbows'. Movie score specialists The Playlist have received a confirmation on this from the music supervisors on the film, Ken Weinstein and Lyle Hysen. Chuck Palahniuk apparently made a mistake in the interview this morning, but it was an exciting feeling while it lasted.

Beside's Radiohead's 'Reckoner', the Choke soundtrack includes Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! ('Satan Said Dance'), The Fiery Furnaces ('Navy Nurse'), Ben Kweller ('The Rules'), The Twilight Singers ('There's Been An Accident') and Rogue Wave ('Lake Michigan').

[elpablo]

Caught a screening of this a few weeks ago. Pretty underwhelming. Seems like they took the superficial outline of Palahniuk's story and made it into a silly comedy, ignoring all of the layers of the book. Eh.

[El Duderino]

The S.H.I.E.L.D dude directed this. Odd.

[MacGuffin]

Chuck Palahniuk Interview
Writer discusses Choke, Fight Club, Radiohead and Christ.
by Chris Tilly, IGN UK

Choke is the subversive tale of Victor Mancini, a sex-addicted con artist who spends his days taking part in re-enactments at a fake colonial village and his evenings pretending to choke in restaurants in an effort to bask in the comfort of strangers. The film, which hits UK screens on Friday, is based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk, and is his first work to be adapted for the screen since 1999's Fight Club. IGN caught up with the author to discuss the gestation of the project, the importance of Radiohead to both book and film, and the reason why Marilyn Monroe is the female Christ. Just beware of a major (and well sign-posted) plots spoiler mid-way through.

IGN: What do you remember of writing Choke?

Chuck Palahniuk: I remember going to sex groups three days a week - Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays - so each one was in a different place. The first two were in church classrooms and the third meeting was in the alcoholics anonymous building, this house that they use. The Friday meeting was always tiny - about three people - because everyone else was out on Friday night...

IGN: For sex?

Palahniuk: Yeah [laughs], I have no idea. But that's what I remember most.

IGN: How does one of your books get turned into a film in the first place?

Palahniuk: Well the optioning of the book is my decision, but I'm strongly advised by a couple of different agents - a movie agent and a book agent. They look at the work that a director has done, and [Choke helmer] Clark Gregg had written What Lies Beneath by that point, and people were very impressed with that, and I was too. So it was easier to sell him the option.

IGN: Are you involved much after that?

Palahniuk: We talked about it - we talked about how to condense the plot, and what I would have done differently before the book was published. But it was still a big surprise when last year they called and said they were going into production, because when it happened, it happened so fast.

IGN: Did anything in particular change from book-to-script?

Palahniuk: One of the things that Clark put in was Cherry Daiquiri's speech in the kitchen. The character has a speech about the Bible, and Clark's father is a minister, so he went to his dad and talked to him about those points of theology, and got her to say things that I could never put in her mouth. So I thought that was just a terrific improvement.

[MAJOR spoiler ahead] It's funny though because at Sundance, in Clark's first cut, Victor doesn't kill his mother. His mother just happens to have a stroke at that moment. So the character is much more innocent and sympathetic, and I was very troubled by that. I really, really didn't like that. I wanted Victor to be responsible for the death, to really have her blood on his hands. So when I saw it re-cut again, after Fox had bought it, Clark had re-cut it so that Victor does kill her. And I was so impressed because I didn't have to say anything – Clark just realised that himself. [Spoiler ends]

IGN: Is it right that you were listening to Radiohead when you wrote the book, and then Clark was able to get them on board for the soundtrack?

Palahniuk: He came up with that as a surprise for me. He knew that I especially listened to the two different versions of 'Creep' that were on 'Pablo Honey'. They really were a basis for Victor's character, and so he made the effort to approach them and see if they would write the closing music, like The Pixies music in Fight Club, and also create some incidental music for the middle of the movie.

IGN: Victor has his choking scam going on, which is a theme that seems to run through your movies - guys with schemes and scams. Why is that?

Palahniuk: I think of it as a guy thing; that men are really unable to express themselves emotionally, especially to make their emotional needs known. So the narrator in Fight Club goes to these support groups so that people will think that he is a dying person and embrace him. He is allowed to have these really strong emotional moments where he weeps and really expresses himself and exhausts himself. But it's all a deception so that he can get his emotional needs met.

In Choke it's about another character who creates a deception so that people will embrace him, and he can have this emotional moment where someone is actually caring for him. And I think a lot of that is based on the fact that men cannot really express themselves or make those demands known. They typically fool people or pay people to do those things for them.

IGN: Victor re-invents himself according to what other people want him to be - is that something you believe applies to us all?

Palahniuk: I think that's something that people do until about the age of 31 - they are constantly allowing their circumstances to define them. They find themselves in relation to other people and everything that's happening around them in the moment, and they meet the expectations of their circumstances. But around the age of 31/32, that starts to fall apart and they realise that they can't just be this reactive thing for the rest of their lives because it will never amount to anything. So they give up on that and they can finally sort of declare who they want to be. And that's the point Victor is at, where he's tired of trying to be what everyone expects, and he's going to have to decide what he wants to be. It's similar in Fight Club.

IGN: So I've got a year to go!

Palahniuk: Well 31 is one, 41 is another one. Actually, people say that for men it's 33, because that's the Jesus Christ year, and for women it's 36, because that's the Marilyn Monroe year. Christ died at 33 and Marilyn died at 36.

IGN: So is Marilyn the female Christ?

Palahniuk: Well men are destroyed for being rebellious, and women destroy themselves by failing to be rebellious. Unless you can make that next jump to either getting along with people or resisting people, you are ultimately destroying yourself.

[MacGuffin]

Pretty underwhelming. Seems like they took the superficial outline of Palahniuk's story and made it into a silly comedy, ignoring all of the layers of the book. Eh.

Exactly. I knew it wasn't going to be a favorable adaptation when I saw it was only 90 minutes long. It just touched the plotpoints of the book and made it a straight comedy instead of the sick, black humor that Palahniuk is known for. When the film gets it right (the sex groups; the choking), it's on point, but when it tries to make some semblace of the overall story, it doesn't do him justice. Rockwell is great as Victor, but everyone else felt miscast, like if you hired the wrong people to speak Mamet's work.

[picolas]

but.. you bought it?