A Confederacy of Dunces, a project based on the legendary novel by John Kennedy Toole, has been in development hell for so long now that I have to imagine that other projects bow down to it. While we here on Cinema Blend regularly update on projects that have spent a decade trying to get made, studios have been trying to develop a Confederacy of Dunces movie since the early 1980s. First introduced to Hollywood as a possible feature project for Harold Ramis to adapt and direct in 1982, the film has had a number of actors attached, including John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, John Goodman, and Will Ferrell. Given its history it's hard to imagine a movie actually ever getting made, but the movie industry is everything if not persistent and so now the latest generation is getting going on making the adaptation.
Vulture reports that the actor now being looked at to play Ignatius J. Reilly is none other than Zach Galifianakis. But that's not the only forward step the project has taken recently. Sources say that The Muppets director James Bobin is now attached to helm the movie based on a script by Cedar Rapids screenwriter Phil Johnston. Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures are on-board to produce. The story is set in the early 60s down in New Orleans, where a lazy, overweight, strangely dressed modern Don Quixote is forced to move out of his mother's house and find his place in the world. The film came closest to reality in 2005 when Ferrell was attached to play the lead, as David Gordon Green was attached to direct, Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer were writing the script, and Lily Tomlin was on-board to play Ignatius' mother. That, of course, never ended up coming together.
Galifianakis may actually be the perfect actor to play Ignatius J. Reilly - but let's be honest with ourselves: this movie is never going to happen. Thirty years is an insane amount of time to be trapped in development hell, and the truth is that if anyone actually had the passion to make it, it would have been made by now. At least we can always re-read John Kennedy Toole's novel.
