Kalistani Major History

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Republican Studios to film new Mystery-Comedy in Sulari
Principle Casting completed; Locations chosen for "The Rug at the Center of it All"
Sulari, Suldanor
October 3, 5327


Nathan Green set to star as Fat Johnson in movie about stoner who loses a rug

Republican Studios has begun filming a much anticipated movie adaptation of absurdist novel Fat Johnson, which was published eight years ago, and has since developed a cult following among certain segments of the Kalistani population. "We finally secured the film rights to Fat Johnson from Vernon Franco [the author]'s estate," said Producer Tama Yakota, for Republican Pictures. "It was a challenge, not because the estate didn't want to conclude the deal but there were several suits filed against Republican by several fan clubs across the Republic when news leaked that we were in negotiations. They felt that Franco had intended for the book to remain an underground novel, and sued making some sort of cultural heritage claim against a wider exposure of this story. In the end, most judges dismissed the suits, and one ruled in favor of the author's estate, not supporting a copyright, but arguing that the will of the deceased specifically passed the ownership of the story onto the executor of the estate, Evan Hernandez, who was Franco's partner, and it was up to Hernandez what happened to the story."

The book itself is one of the more obscure novels to be published in the Republic in recent years. After the first run of 1000, it was discovered that Franco had deliberately misspelled many of the words in the book, specifically to make it difficult to read or copy. The publisher then hired a copy editor to go through and edit the book, but the project was abandoned when the author objected and the copy editor declared that time to revise the book to make it intelligible would increase the price of each copy sold significantly. At this point, the printer refused to print more copies and sued the author for a return of the advance that was sent. Franco eventually lost that suit, was forced to repay more than 400,000 KRB (most of which had already been spent on boats and drugs by the time the suit was adjudicated) and the publisher refused to print any additional copies, making the printed book instantly rare. The author further undermined efforts to make the book more accessible by publishing at least three separate different versions online over two years. Followers of the author's work insist that three of the four versions are canon, but do not agree on which three.

The unintelligibility of the book, though challenging, has been a holy grail for film makers, who consider the book to be a challenge worth accepting. "You realize, after about 400 pages into this book that the book is like Fat Johnson's ratty cardigan," said Yakota. "Since so few people have actually read this book, I'll try not to spoil the plot resolution, but it is like one of these situations where you have a thread hanging off your shirt, and you pull on it, only too late realizing that you have unraveled far more than you intended to. One problem leads to five others: Fat Johnson gets mistaken for another guy with his same legal name, mobsters come and bust up his apartment and destroy his yoga rug, he gets involved in a kidnapping plot, his car gets stolen by someone, he thinks either Fascists or a high school kid, there's no telling, and he spends a lot of time bowling, drinking, smoking herb and getting into strange situations. At the end, you're as lost as anyone. And this seems to be the beauty of it all: Nothing really means anything."

Flor Ellis, who is cast as artist Nann Johnson (fore) with Nathan Green and Peter Sullivan in early daily from "The Rug at the Center of it All"

According to Yakota, Republican Pictures greenlit the project because they think this may help kickstart the flagging Kalistani Film Industry. "They're taking a chance. We have some of the best comedic and dramatic actors in this absurd film about a dude who just wants his rug back. We think that people will come to the theaters to see Republican cinema for once, and we think there is a significant market out there for these type of films. It could pave the way for more of these types of movies." Republican Pictures generally produces concert films and hasn't actually competed in the feature film category for years. "We think our film makers have a lot to say, and with the buzz generated around us securing the rights to this story, I think we can really leverage that into support for the Kalistani film Industry as a whole."

Yakota said that principle location shooting has already begun but a few roles need to be cast yet. "We're still looking for a few supporting characters, like a cowboy who is kind of a mentor for Fat Johnson, and a female supporting character who plays the kidnapped victim. But we are going ahead with shooting, just in case some other nut case fan club decides to try to file a lawsuit against us to claim some sort of ownership of this story," said Yakota. "The Director, Bob Roth, has an excellent creative team working with him to make this bizarre book a reality on film and we expect to remain as true to the source material as we can figure out how to be. The Estate insists on it, and I think that's really the only way this story can be told satisfactorily. We think it will turn out very well, and fans will love it when it comes out."

The film is expected to be done with principle photography by December, and post production is expected to be completed by Spring. Yakota expects a release date of July of next year, "... barring any additional lawsuits..." she added.