If you’ve had an ear tuned to the literary world over the past year or two, you’ll likely have heard the name Karl Ove Knausgaard. He’s the Norwegian author whose claim to fame is his six-volume, no-holds-barred, dirty-laundry-and-all autobiography "My Struggle," which has made him a sensation. Now, he better get ready for some more attention.
Alexander Payne has signed up to direct "My Saga." The road-trip movie will be based on Knausgaard’s travel writing for New York Times magazine, which saw him journey through the northern United States, retracing the steps the Vikings took through the country. His work was published across two parts which you can read here and here. It seems like a good fit for the filmmaker who has spun previous on-the-road stories in "Sideways" and "Nebraska."
It’s all early stages, and there’s no writer attached yet, so this will be a while in coming. Next for Payne is "Downsizing" starring Reese Witherspoon, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Sudeikis. Production will begin this year for release in 2017. [Thompson On Hollywood]