Jon Katz' "Geeks" Goes Hollywood

ChrisCrosby was the first to notice that Hollywood Reporter has a story about our own Jon Katz' soon-to-be-released book "Geeks" being picked up by New Line Cinema for a feature film. Lawrence Bender (producer of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Good Will Hunting and more) and Laurie Bickford are producing. I'm really excited for Jon, and I just wanted to congratulate him: He's been working so hard on this, and the parts of the story that I've read have been really wonderful. And Hemos and I get cameos! Now since Bender has produced all of Quentin Tarantino's films, wouldn't it be fabulous if he directed this?Update: 01/14 04:09 by H : BTW, the actual book is available for pre-order through ThinkGeek. Check it out.

Linux Pulp Fiction

...know what they call Linux in France?

What, OS Royale?

Actually, I think they still call it Linux.

Re:Congrats With A Question

The book is about those two kids Katz interviewed, huh? I grew up in Idaho, 20 miles from where those kids did. It's not exactly Silicon Valley, but there are a whole lot of technology companies there right now, like HP and Micron and Extended Systems and dozens of smaller firms, as well as the headquarters of other companies like Albertsons and Boise Cascade.

Katz got snowed by those kids, that's what happened. They fed him some line about how their lives sucked because the only things in Idaho are potato farms, that sugar beet plant, and rusty old pickups with shotguns and loud radios tuned to the country music station, and he bought it. I don't know anyone in the area who read the Wired article and took it seriously.

Now if the subtitle of the movie is "How a gullible journalist got taken in by a couple of lazy kids who can't find jobs in the 3rd fastest growing area in the U.S.", maybe it'll be worth watching as something other than a parody.

--

Samuel L. Jackson as a geek

"Put down that motherfucking mouse before I bust your motherfucking hand off!"
________________________________

This is bad for the 'net, the world is ending.

When a major multi-national corporation distributes a book it crushes all competition and it is the end of print media.

This is compounded by the backing of a media powerhouse like a studio. First they make one movie and before you know it, they are making all of the movies and they control the world.

This move is a corruption of the OpenSource spirit and the sky is falling and the world is ending.



Congratulations on your new deal!

Re:???Maybe Kevin Smith???

Jay and Silent Bob as CmdrTaco and Hemos?

(shudder)

How about Slashdot the Sitcom?

You'd be appealing to a lot of young professionals with lots of disposable income.

There are lots of easy plot ideas. The guys meet one of the "first post" guys, who turns out to be some famous celebrity (preferably an attractive female one). Hemo's hamster gets killed by crawling into a computer, the guys have an adventure replacing it, etc.

Eventually, however, they'd end up transferring Lt. Worf to the geek compound to boost ratings.

It would turn out to be a boon to the writers, who finally get the chance to eliminate Jon Katz' character, despite his immense popularity as a result of being played by michael richards. ("Katz!")

Worf : Katz! In writing these articles you insult my Klingon Ancestors! [Worf cleaves Katz]

topical?

It amazes me how a discussion of a post about the option rights bought by a publishing company can become an unmitigated thread of Katzbashing. Regardless of what he says, he DOES have a right to say it, and /. has a right to post it. Im amazed by the fact that people who put silly little snarky comments towards /. always have almost nothing valid to say towards the thread, but yet complain that they are moderated. *sigh*

As for this news, I think it is GOOD news.. I find myself in agreeance with Jon's views in a lot of cases, but the convoluted way he gets to it sometimes leads me to wish he had an editor. However, remember, Einstein could barely write legibly, let alone grammatically correctly. So what? do we ignore everything he had to say because the man wrote badly? No, we hail him as a genius and work around his learning disorders.

I personally WELCOME a geek movie from Jon.. at least he has read enough comments FROM the geek community to get a feel for it, even if he doesnt share that communitys viewpoints in the majority (or the vocal minority, im still not sure which applies here). But, im sure the film will turn (if made) out better than Hackers, or any of the other stupid films that have attempted to paint uber-geeks as gutter punks with antique hardware whose life revolves around boy meets girl and hacking el evil corporation.

I realy hope that this film gets made, and I hope Jon holds some sway over the final outcome. (if he is true to his beliefs, I think he would anyway, or would block the production of it, much as Gibson did with all the characters out of Neuromancer cept Johnny).

Anyway.. Kudos to you Katz, good luck, and have fun!

cameo, phbbbt!

Hey, I'll stunt-double for CmdrTaco. You never know when you might be swapping out some RAM and get a nasty shock. Wouldn't want that to happen on film. The girl geeks would definitely not dig it. OTOH, stunt men are chick magnets, as anyone knows.... ;)

It would be perfect! We even share the same initials! Really, dude, you gotta have me as your stunt man.

CT

Ya know...

...this is really not unlike the hippie phenomenon.

Back when Katz was young and hadn't smoked too much dope, there was a subculture called 'hippies'. There were a certain amount of hippies that were perfectly sincere, and quite a lot of plastic imitations cruising over to the Haight on the weekends. (No, I wasn't one of the latter, I was about 3 months old at the time).

Eventually hippieness became a media explosion, infighting set in, and now hippie is largely an epithet, a term of abuse or embarrassment and something to be repudiated.

Thanks to Jon Katz, I can foresee a time when geek becomes equally an embarrassment. Where hippie became synonymous with an airheaded spacecase, geek will become synonymous with a sociopathic, daylight-fearing danger to society.

And maybe that's good, because then we can get back to being people for a change. :P

Unfortunate

I find it really unfortunate that Lawrence Bender and his people are doing this, because it means it probably won't completely suck, and it deserves to. I must say I'm surprised, one thing about Bender's movies is that they've always been in some way new and original, and not typical Hollywood rehashing of the same themes we've already seen before. Not JonKatz. JonKatz is pro-Geek, anti-Censorship, anti-American/Establishment, anti-Conservative, anti-Religious, pro-Conspiracy-Theory, pro-Porn, pro-mp3, pro-linux, anti-MS. Wow, what an amazing set of original creeds! (or not) I can't wait to see all the twists and surprises in this movie!

JonKatz loves to play off the contradiction which is the popularity of 'alternative' culture. Geeks are alternative, so JonKatz has to write good things about them. Same with linux and mp3s and everything else. The y2k bug became too mainstream, so JonKatz had to say that it was a stupid overhyped thing which didn't matter.

The problem is that he doesn't actually think for himself too often. If you remember any of the old articles he posted (the ones where he stilled talked about computers, and used the word 'geek' 3 times per paragraph), it was obvious he had no idea what he was talking about or being a geek was. Of course sometimes he got the main point correct, but only incidentally, and without a lot of depth of discussion behind it.

The best part of JonKatz's articles has always been the user comments. I don't think we'll get that in the movie.

Besides, JonKatz once called Contact a failure, how can he ever be involved with the making of a good movie?

I can't wait to see how many times he uses the word 'geek' and uses microsoft-html in his movie.

It's perfect!

Katz and Hollywood were meant for each other. Both represent the cream of the pseudo-intellectual crop.

"And Hemos and I get cameos!"

This explains why Katz is still around, I guess.

(goodbye 70+ karma...)
---

Resevoir Geeks? Pulp Slashdot?

Are you SURE that Tarantino directing would be such a good idea?

Mind you, the thought of CmdrTaco in a Gimp mask is kinda appropriate...

???Maybe Kevin Smith???

Who produced Goodwill Hunting, directed Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. He's worked with Lawrence Bender in the past and when I first heard of this it was his name that was mentioned. Actually my friend wasn't familiar with John Katz and said that it was the proposed new Kevin Smith flick.
It would be great if there were cameos (or parts) for Silent Bob (KS) and Jay (I'll never get enough of those two.

Re:It's perfect!

Usually I just ignore people with bad attitudes. Really, I don't feel it's my place to butt into other peoples' lives to tell them that their behavior is inappropriate. Sometimes, however, it is necessary.

Your comments about Katz are completely out of line. He has done more to help geeks and the "geek cause" than anyone I've ever heard of. Read his latest book when it comes out (_Geeks_). Even if you disagree with his view of tech culture, you should at least be able to admit that he deserves more respect than you've shown him in these posts.

In addition, CmdrTaco and Hemos also deserve more respect. Your 70+ karma is nothing compared to what they've done. They help run /., and if that isn't enough for you, they are also better geeks who truly contribute to the community. I should also point out that a high karma achieved by the high volume, low quality posting you do is not
much to be proud of. I've even looked at your high moderation posts and found that they are almost uniformly examples of the problems with the moderation system.

I don't know CmdrTaco and Hemos, but I have a passing acquaintance with Katz, and I do not find him to be a pseudo- anything. He is an intelligent author and a worthwhile conversationalist. If you don't see that from his
posts, you should at least let what respect you have for the /. bunch guide you with regard to your evaluation of his character and intelligence, since they know him much better than you do. Ah, I forgot, you don't seem to have much respect for those who run /.

Now I've had another glimpse into the dark side of the geek. All I see is a bunch of angry adolescents who improperly focus their pain on aggression against those who are slightly different then they are. It is sickening and
fascinating that the same childish impulse to hurt and exclude others that in the vast majority of cases forced geeks to become geeks shows up again in the geek community it created.

I think you'll find killing Piggy doesn't make people love you. Of course this time Piggy has the high ground. It speaks well for him that he doesn't choose to take advantage of it.

Re:Short List

What if the entire movie was based, not just on Katz's book, but on the Slashdot community's reaction to it?

The opening titles would begin with a bunch of really lame dorks who appear on screen for no reason and shout "FIRST CAMEO DUDE!!!"

The film would be periodically interrupted with hysterically funny haiku, apropos of what was happening in the plot at that moment.

Of course, there would have to be a retelling of the legend of Pygmalion, starring MEEPT as Pygmalion and Natalie Portman as Galatea.

The closing credits could have somebody reading the Slashdot Address, the M&M-breeding article, or a Generic Flame--or perhaps all three at once, since no one will actually be paying attention.

Maybe the dialogue in the film itself could be moderated to different volume levels.

RE: Samuel L. Jackson as a geek.

How's this.

"Reach in that bag and give back that Palm Pilot."

"The one that says 'Bad Motherfucker' on the case."

Ving Rhames as a geek

"We're going to get a couple of Jolt fiending programmers and get object oriented on his ass."

Tarantino...

"Where do you see 'dead vaio storage' ?"

I gotta get back to work, I can keep this up all day...

LK

Keep your pants on, this doesn't mean we'll see it

New Line has optioned the book. That basically means they called "we got dibs" on the rights to make a movie out of the book for the next X years (for a price, of course). It doesn't mean they will make a movie, it doesn't even mean they've given thought thought about script/director/whatever. It just means they think the book has enough value that they don't want to risk losing the chance to make the movie to another studio - or, more importantly, risk another studio making the movie and thus making money they may have had a chance at.

Remember DOOM was optioned for a movie at least 3, 4 years ago. the options have been bought and sold around Hollywood, and we're still not even close to seeing a feature film.