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I wonder if they’ll film it on Duke’s campus. Gasp. The last time Tom Wolfe, the dainty literary dandy, had one of his novels adapted to the big screen it proved disastrous (1987’s The Bonfire of the Vanities), but THR reports that video director (U2, Avril Lavigne) Liz Friedlander will helm I Am Charlotte Simmons, Wolfe’s “shocking” depiction on the American college experience. Released in 2005, Simmons plunges the titular, naive “country girl” into the shark-infested waters of fictional Dupont University, where she’s quickly schooled in the ways of promiscuous sex, rich kids and Duke-esque vapidity.

Friedlander’s feature work is limited to the 2006 Antonio Banderas dance-off Take the Lead, so who knows how the film will play out. Wolfe’s novel was humorously and notoriously panned, one of those works that can wreck an otherwise respectable and showoff-y book collection. The horror! Screenwriter John Watson (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) will adapt and produce. This has the potential to be the Any Given Sunday of college films more so than The Rules of Attraction, and hopefully Wolfe cameos as a white-clad dean or distinguished white-clad professor.

Discuss: What young actress should play the corrupted country bumpkin Charlotte Simmons? What’s the most accurate depiction of your college years on film?

  • Floppy
    Slow news day?
  • I think you're confusing "tomb" with "tome" there, hoss. And I didn't think it was a bad book. Stretched the bounds of believability as all Wolfe books seem to do, but there was some good stuff in there. Certainly better than Bridget Jones' Diary or some of the other piece of crap books they've made movies out of.
  • Drax
    I Am Bound To Be Disappointed
  • Bully
    fucking miley ray cyrus
  • Hunter Stephenson
    @ Bully

    In the name of capitalism, why not.
  • Lars Ziegler
    Rules of Attraction will be tough to beat.
  • Karissa
    MAKE IT A MOVIE, I Am Charlotte Simmons IS AN AWESOME BOOOOOOOOK ! i'm in highschool, i read it for a book report, and MY GOOSHH, each chapter was exciting ! PLEASE DOO YOUR FANS A FAVOR, MAKE IT A MOVIE (= that would be TIGGGHT !
  • Erika
    Yes lets continue making all great books movies so that the younger generation will never have to read a novel for a book report and can learn to put all their imagination aside and watch movie. Every time someone turns a book into a movie, the chances of it turning out even remotely worth watching are slim and it just adds to the ever wondering question "Has Hollywood run out of ideas?"
  • Fine Club
    best actress 4 charlotte: ellen page
  • Josh
    It was a great book. Film adaptations of books can lead non-readers (like I used to be) to great literature. Though it is always a shame when a film fails to capture the essence of a beloved book, it can also become more accessable for those who might never have been introduced to the original work. Personally, I think _I Am Charlotte Simmons_ ought to be required reading for high school seniors and their parents. Wolfe got college life dead on, and more students and parents ought to be shown what they're getting for $40k per year.
  • sally
    I think one of the olson twins would make a great actress for charlotte!
  • charlotte12
    i want shiri appleby for charlotte
  • Adam
    The book rocks. Critics are idiots who confound subject matter with good writing. Just because it's about college kids doesn't make it trivial. I found it a vastly superior examination of identity in a social context than "The Bonfire of the Vanities." That's all. Critics who panned it suck. Anyway, Amanda Seyfried from "Mean Girls" and "Big Love" should play Charlotte. 100%
  • Bill
    If you read that book and try to match the physical description of Charlotte to a young actress you have to put Scarlett Johansson at the top of the list to play the role. Beautiful, great body, great legs, plenty of sass in her attitude just like in "Love Song for Bobby Long". No one else even comes close to the perfect fit.
  • Halie
    jena malone.
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