Rumor that's hard to believe, but the world is an infinite jest: DFW was working on a film adaption of his 1000+ page masterpiece. UPDATE: Adam reminds me via email: "Curtis Armstrong ('Booger' in the Nerds movies and 'Charles' in Better Off Dead) sold his adapted screenplay of Infinite Jest to HBO in the '90s." And Marco says in the comments: "I read a draft of the script by Keith Bunin several years ago."
I read a draft of the script by Keith Bunin several years ago, but I highly doubt DFW himself was involved in the screenwriting process.
posted by crazymonk at 7:47 PM on September 15, 2008 
crazymonk: Can you get me that? I'd love to read it. Is it online somewhere?
posted by Gavin at 7:57 PM on September 15, 2008
It was a physical copy I got access to via an industry contact. But I jotted down the first line:
TV REPORTER (V.O.)
Washington D.C. popped its cork today to celebrate the first Interdependence Day of the brand-new Organization of North American Nations.
It was very much focused on the global issues in the novel -- much to its detriment, I think.
posted by crazymonk at 8:28 PM on September 15, 2008
According to the about page for Open City Films, the film - using the aforementioned script by Benin and directed by Sam Jones (as mentioned in the CHUD article) - is in "active development."
Benin's screenplay actually made the 2005 Black List (a list of Hollywood's favorite unproduced screenplays; PDF link because the HTML is horribly wonky).
posted by Alex at 9:16 PM on September 15, 2008
Rex - You should get that Black List on the Lists of Lists this year.
Also of note on that:
1) Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon - My favorite sci-fi book of the last 10 years. Could be a new Blade Runner.
2) George Saunder's CivilWarLand in Bad Decline - I love this book and the titular story but I worry that it would translate well. It could become very schticky.
posted by Gavin at 10:26 AM on September 16, 2008
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