Lynn Shelton earned a lot of attention and acclaim last year for her gay sex dare comedy “Humpday.” We didn’t particularly care for it, and whether or not the film was unfairly or not lumped into the mumblecore movment (we don’t care either way, and have no idea what the “credentials” are for something like that), her profile was raised and she become a director to keep an eye on.
Speaking with IndieWire, Shelton has announced that her next project may be an adaptation of Joshua Ferris’ celebrated novel “Then We Came To The End,” a comedy film that seems right in her wheelhouse as its been described as “‘The Office’ meets Kafka”. The synopsis from Publishers Weekly is below:
In this wildly funny debut from former ad man Ferris, a group of copywriters and designers at a Chicago ad agency face layoffs at the end of the ’90s boom. Indignation rises over the rightful owner of a particularly coveted chair (“We felt deceived”). Gonzo e-mailer Tom Mota quotes Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the midst of his tirades, desperately trying to retain a shred of integrity at a job that requires a ruthless attention to what will make people buy things. Jealousy toward the aloof and “inscrutable” middle manager Joe Pope spins out of control. Copywriter Chris Yop secretly returns to the office after he’s laid off to prove his worth. Rumors that supervisor Lynn Mason has breast cancer inspire blood lust, remorse, compassion. Ferris has the downward-spiraling office down cold, and his use of the narrative “we” brilliantly conveys the collective fear, pettiness, idiocy and also humanity of high-level office drones as anxiety rises to a fever pitch. Only once does Ferris shift from the first person plural (for an extended fugue on Lynn’s realization that she may be ill), and the perspective feels natural throughout. At once delightfully freakish and entirely credible, Ferris’s cast makes a real impression.
Independent film producers Anne Carey and Ted Hope, who have worked with the likes of Ang Lee, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener, Todd Field, Michel Gondry and Greg Mottola are working with Shelton, which most likely ensures this film will firmly not be in the mumblecore camp. No further details are available, but while Shelton has “a couple of other projects coming down the pipeline as well…” she is “excited” by this one.