Chuck Palahniuk Scripting ‘Lullaby’, Based On His Own Book
Chuck Palahniukis about to go from inspiring movies to making one himself. TheFight Clubauthor revealed at a recent event that he’s set to writeLullaby, an adaptation of his own 2002 novel. Hit the jump for more about the Chuck PalahniukLullabymovie developments.
Assuming everything works out,Lullabywill be Palahniuk’s first-ever screenplay credit. He was not involved in adapting either David Fincher’sFight Cluband Clark Gregg’sChoke, though he reportedly praised both films.
Given how often we hear about Palahniuk’s works being optioned, it’s somewhat surprising to realize that only two features based on his book have ever been produced. Though that’ll change soon enough. Adaptations ofSnuff,Haunted,Invisible Monsters, andmost recentlyRantare all in various stages of development.
When Lullaby will make it to theaters is unclear. Palahniuk’s comments suggest he hasn’t actually started on the screenplay yet, but AICN adds that he sounded like he was planning to start “imminently.”
No stars are on board at present. Palahiuk claimedat one pointthat a director namedRolf Johanssonwas attached, but that was six years ago. He’s probably dropped out by now as well. Assuming heever existed.
Here’s the synopsis ofLullaby, straight fromPalahniuk’s website.
The culling song—an African chant from a story book entitled Poems and Rhymes from Around the World—is a song that kills anyone it is read to. Stressed out due to his double loss, Streator starts to see people drop dead in front of his eyes. Turns out all he has to do is think about the culling song and he can kill anyone he directs that thought to.
Instead of using this new found ability to his advantage—admit it, you’d play around with it a bit—he sets out to find and destroy every copy of this book. He meets Helen Hoover Boyle, her assistant Mona, and Mona’s boyfriend, Oyster. Helen has experienced the destruction of the culling song and joins Streator’s crusade. On the way around the country, Streator discovers the existence of the grimoire, a spell book that contains the culling song. Now they must find and destroy that as well.
Streator has a tough time not killing everyone who pisses him off while trying to keep the culling song out of the wrong hands—most hands, actually.
Sounds like a pure horror/sci-fi novel. But it’s weird and funny and is still a Palahniuk novel that will have non-Palahniuk people lifting an eyebrow in confusion when you tell them what you’re reading.
