Alexander Payne To Direct Movie Of Daniel Clowes’ Wilson

Daniel Clowes Wilson is one of my favourite comics in a long time (available via Amazon in the UK and US right now). It observes its title character, a rather alienated divorcee, as he struggles to relate to the people he meets and, as the story goes on, attempts to reunite his family. Perfect material, I think, for director Alexander Payne, previously of About Schmidt and Sideways. Fox Searchlight seem to be a dab hand as selling this kind of material too, so it’s good they’ve snapped up the project.

Clowes will be writing the Wilson screenplay himself, say Deadline, and that worked out just fine before with Ghost World and Art School Confidential, both of those directed by Terry Zwigoff. This new collaboration with Payne should prove every bit as successful.

Well, if it happens. It’s still just a “potential directing vehicle for Payne”.

The director’s next movie, The Descendants, is nearing completion and has been tipped for a slot at Cannes next year; his follow-up project is likely to be Downsizing, a sci-fi satire about commune of miniaturised people. I can’t wait to tell you more about that one because the screenplay was something of a humdinger. Wilson, if Payne directs, would be likely to follow that.

The art style in Clowes’ Wilson comic changes very regularly. I don’t think Payne would adopt such a distancing conceit for his movie, but I’d be fascinated to see how he acheives a similar effect in subtle, cinematic terms.

Anyway, this is the best bit of news today, if you ask me. Even better than Gambit gettting funded.