Lonely? Sex-starved? An inept male with no idea how to talk to women? Have no fear for as long as you’ve got cash to spare, you can hire a professional pick-up artist for advice and guidance. What is a professional pick up artist? It’s a guy who has combined marketing terminology with age old (and usually terrible tricks) that amount to ignoring beautiful women to trying to trick them into the sack. Remember “Search and Destroy” from “Magnolia”? There is a whole industry of Frank T.J. Mackey’s out there.
A few years ago, author Neil Strauss had a surprise hit on his hands when he published “The Game: Penetrating The Secret Society Of Pick Up Artists.” Part memoir and part expose, the autobiographical book chronicled Strauss’ own adventures in the guys club world of pick-up artists and his experiences and successes with the techniques he learned from these guys. Now, it’s set to become a movie.
Being positioned generically as a “dating comedy,” the film is sure to be a bit different than your standard rom-com. Ari Sandel (“Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights — Hollywood to the Heartland”) is in talks to direct the film with Adam Sztykiel (“Made Of Honor,” “Due Date”) rewriting the script originally adapted by Dan Weiss.
It’s certainly an intriguing angle on the standard “dating comedy,” but it remains to be seen if it will retain the sleazy quality that makes the source material both a stomach churning and fascinating look at male douchebag culture (having spent copious amounts of time with Marilyn Manson, and members of Motley Crue, while writing their books, Strauss is intimately familiar with these types of folks and some say he’s become far too intimate if you get our drift).