Alison Flood 

David Foster Wallace’s family object to biopic The End of the Tour

Wallace 'would never have agreed' to dramatisation of road trip he took with Rolling Stone reporter, says his literary estate
  
  

David Foster Wallace
'No connection' with The End of the Tour … David Foster Wallace in 1996. Photograph: Gary Hannabarger/Corbis Photograph: Gary Hannabarger/Corbis

The family of David Foster Wallace have laid out their objections to a new film about the late author, which is based on a road trip he took with a Rolling Stone reporter in 1996, saying that "David would never have agreed that those saved transcripts could later be repurposed as the basis of a movie".

The film, The End of the Tour, stars Jason Segel as Wallace and Jesse Eisenberg as David Lipsky, the reporter who wrote a book – Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself – based on the five-day trip he took with Wallace during the author's publicity tour for Infinite Jest in 1996. Images of Segel playing Wallace in the film have recently emerged, but Wallace's estate has now distanced itself emphatically from the adaptation.

A statement from the David Foster Wallace Literary Trust, Wallace's family and his publisher Little, Brown printed by the Los Angeles Times says they "wish to make it clear that they have no connection with, and neither endorse nor support The End of the Tour".

"This motion picture is loosely based on transcripts from an interview David consented to 18 years ago for a magazine article about the publication of his novel, Infinite Jest. That article was never published and David would never have agreed that those saved transcripts could later be repurposed as the basis of a movie. The trust was given no advance notice that this production was underway and, in fact, first heard of it when it was publicly announced. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no circumstance under which the David Foster Wallace Literary Trust would have consented to the adaptation of this interview into a motion picture, and we do not consider it an homage," they continue.

The estate goes on to say that "individuals and companies" involved with the film were made "keenly aware" of the reasons for their objections to the adaptation, "yet persisted in capitalising upon a situation that leaves those closest to David unable to prevent the production".

"The trust will continue to review its legal options with respect to any commercial exploitation of the motion picture," the statement said.

Wallace killed himself in 2008 at the age of 46. He is viewed as one of the most brilliant young American novelists of his generation, best remembered for the epic, 1,000-page plus Infinite Jest, his second novel. "I wanted to do something sad," he said of the book, "real American, about what it's like to live in America around the millennium." Since his death, the posthumous novel The Pale King, which Wallace left unfinished when he died, has been published.

The novelist's estate expressed the hope that "David be remembered for his extraordinary writing", saying they remained interested in working "with a range of artists who are interested in respectful adaptations, and will vigilantly protect David's literary and personal legacy".

 

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