Mark Duplass Set to Helm A Horse Walks Into a Bar Adaptation

May 13, 2020

It’s been eight years since Mark Duplass (The Morning Show) sat in the director’s chair on a feature-length work and now he’s found his next project in the upcoming adaptation of David Grossman’s A Horse Walks Into a Bar, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Written by Grossman and published in the US in 2017, the novel centers on a stand-up comic as he reveals the deeper story of his life over the course of an evening performance, in which barbs are thrown back and forth between himself and the audience and revelations come to light that alters the lives of those in attendance and leads to a series of candid and chilling truths about his past.

Pick up your copy of the novel here!

At the time of reporting, no writer is currently attached to pen the screenplay adaptation and it’s unclear if Duplass will also assume that role, but given his work in the past as both writer and director, the possibility is open for him to do so.

Village Roadshow is set as the main producer for the project after acquiring the rights to the novel last August and will produce with Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer and Peter Jaysen from Veritas Entertainment Group, while Jillian Apfelbaum will oversee it for Village Roadshow.

Duplass made his uncredited directorial debut on the 2005 road mumblecore film The Puffy Chair alongside his brother Jay, which received generally positive reviews from critics, and would go on to co-write and co-direct the well-received indie dramedies Baghead, Cyrus, Jeff, Who Lives at Home and The Do-Deca Pentathlon with Jay. He most recently stepped into the director’s chair for episodes of his and Jay’s HBO series Room 104, which is set to begin its fourth and final season on July 24.

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