Chuck Palahniuk's "Lullaby" to Be Adapted for the Big-Screen
Chuck Palahniuk, 53, has optioned his horror-satire novel "Lullaby" to indie filmmakers Andy Mingo and Josh Leake. According to The Wrap, Mingo will direct from a script he'll likely co-write with Palahniuk, while Leake will produce the indie adaptation.
About the upcoming project, Mingo on his Facebook page reportedly wrote: "I'm honored and humbled to be bringing one of my all-time favorite novels to the big screen with my production partner Josh Leake and our new production company, Mindpollen. This is going to be quite the adventure." In an interview he did with partner Leake for the Portland Film, he also said: "Chuck and I are friends so working with him just seems like an extension of that friendship. Chuck also has a very conscious view of the separation between his written work and its cinematic representation, which I suspect he learned early when 'Fight Club' was first released. With the story, 'Romance' that I adapted from one of Chuck's short stories, he was very supportive with his comments when I was writing the script. I bought the rights to the story for one dollar and a bottle of wine. Wine has always been a big part of our friendship."
Palahniuk, of course is still best known as the author of "Fight Club" which was developed into a feature film starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, as well as a video game of the same name. A film version of his "Choke" was also made which starred Sam Rockwell, Kelly MacDonald with Clark Gregg as director. On September 11, 2014, the film version of Palahniuk's "Rant" was announced starring James Franco with Pamela Romanowsky directing and writing the screen adaptation. The film rights to the author's "Invisible Monsters" and "Diary" have also already been sold previously, both of which however are still in development.
Palahniuk's "Lullaby" follows the tale of a newspaper reporter named Carl Streator who suspects an African chant known as a "culling song" may be behind a series of cases of sudden infant death syndrome, which also claimed his own child. After he discovers the "lullaby" has the power to kill anyone whether spoken or merely thought, he begins to use it on people both accidentally and on purpose.