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Jon Katz To Be Played By Jeff Bridges 207

Posted by kdawson from the going-to-the-dogs dept.
Robotech_Master writes, "Long-time Slashdot veterans will remember Jon Katz, the editorial writer whose Slashdot articles invariably generated heated controversy. It appears he may have the last laugh; how many of the Slashdot posters who ridiculed him went on to be played by Jeff Bridges in a movie? From the article: 'In his new book, "A Good Dog: The Story of Orson," Katz chronicles the life and death of the lovable but troubled border collie that transformed his life. It continues the story begun in Katz's last book, "A Dog Year," now being made into a movie starring Jeff Bridges as Katz.' Katz critics may get a chuckle out of the plot synopsis for the film: 'A man having a mid-life crisis has his life turned upside down when he takes in a border collie crazier than he is.'" The film should be released in late 2007.
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Jon Katz To Be Played By Jeff Bridges More

Jon Katz To Be Played By Jeff Bridges

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  • Good casting (Score:4, Funny)

    by coolgeek ( 140561 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:06PM (#17008872) Homepage
    A man having a mid-life crisis has his life turned upside down when he takes in a border collie crazier than he is.

    Can't think of anyone better than Jeff Bridges to play that role.

    • Re:Good casting (Score:5, Funny)

      by s20451 ( 410424 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:14PM (#17009004) Journal
      I hope they get Wilmer Valderrama to play Junis.
    • So who is going to play Cowboy Neal? When does casting for the Slashdot movie start?

    • Really? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:39PM (#17009342) Homepage Journal
      I always pictured Katz as more of a Keanu Reeves. If Keanu wasn't available they could always have tried that guy who played the hero in "Team America: World Police". His acting was a little more lifelike and less wooden than Keanu's but he'd still have been a good match (IMHO.)

      Every time I've just about forgotten about Katz something comes along to remind me of his existence. Usually a "Whatever happened to Jon Katz" posting on this site. Apparently he was not killed by a pack of wild dingoes as per my previous speculation. [slashdot.org] So I'd suggest looking forward to that 20 part "Columbine Revisited" story any day now. On the plus side I probably won't see it if it's posted on this site -- I got my account here for the sole purpose of disabling posts from him and as far as I know there's still a setting in the database preventing me from seeing a story by him (If not about him)

      • If Keanu wasn't available they could always have tried that guy who played the hero in "Team America: World Police". His acting was a little more lifelike and less wooden than Keanu's but he'd still have been a good match (IMHO.)

        Did you mean the guy who provided the voice, or the actual puppet?
        • I think his joke flew by your head, he meant the puppet. Get it? A wooden puppet is mroe lifelike and less wooden than Keanu.
          • I am failing to comprehend. Keanu Reeves is human, and thus fleshy, and thus not made of wood. Furthermore, jokes are incapable of flight. (*pause*) Or perhaps this is another "idiom" with which I am unfamiliar. </cmdrData>
          • Oh I got it, I was just trying to stretch it, but I guess I failed.

  • CowboyNeal (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:07PM (#17008880)
    They've also announced that CowboyNeal will be played by a CGI'd Andy Serkis.

  • This dog has fleas (Score:3, Funny)

    by Scareduck ( 177470 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:08PM (#17008896) Homepage Journal
    I hadn't remembered Katz's journalistic peregrinations here, but I sort of assumed he had gone the way of the dodo. Is he somehow related to the movie's producers?

    • Re:This dog has fleas (Score:5, Funny)

      by PCM2 ( 4486 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:22PM (#17009100) Homepage
      Indeed, the way of the dodo -- like the American educational system. In its place, a Satanic hellhole of perfidious opporession. The greater question here is not whether Jon Katz is related to the producers... but whether, in this post-9/11 era, any of us can truly say that we are more than a few degrees of separation from the producers ourselves? And what does that say for our crazy, mixed-up culture, when so many of our voices are forever silenced, gagged by forces every bit as insidious as the MPAA itself? I say here's to the new heroes of this tumultuous age, so powerfully exemplified by the likes of Jon Katz and the heart-wrenching experiences to which he was subjected in this, the cruelest of online forums.
      • that was uncanny
      • Forgot globalization, dude. Can't be Jon Katz mocking without globalization.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gfxguy ( 98788 )
          And also "post Columbine." Maybe throw in something about people digging up their Vic-20's from the holes they burried them in in Afghanistan to go online with.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GoofyBoy ( 44399 )
        Get... out ... of ... my ... head!

      • Re:This dog has fleas (Score:5, Funny)

        by zero1101 ( 444838 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:38PM (#17009330) Homepage
        oh, THAT guy.
        • The thing that's hilarious is I didn't know Slashdot could block article authors until Jon Katz went off on his insane tangents. To me he's been gone for years, in reality I haven't thought of him unless to make reference to a wordy, logically unsound, obnoxious shill.

          But hey, that's why I blocked him.

          I still wonder *why* /. stopped carrying his stories... maybe I wasn't the only one blocking his articles.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by SuperQ ( 431 ) *
            Yea, I also blocked Katz long, long ago...

            I'm still waiting for my Cringley and Dvorak filters. :(

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by Custard ( 45810 )
            I signed up for an account just so I could block him. If only I had known earlier. I could have had one of those cool four digit numbers.

      • Re:This dog has fleas (Score:4, Funny)

        by Bertie ( 87778 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @08:21PM (#17009808) Homepage
        Say what you like about the tenets of the American educational system, Dude, at least it's an ethos.
      • I think the filter must have broken after the upgrade...I still saw that.

        Actually, I kind of miss the guy. It was so nice to see so many comments that agreed with each other. Say what you will about Katz, he united many of us Slashdotters in our distaste for his writing. Never have I seen so many ways to say STFU as in the comments for a JonKatz post.

        I always figured he finally got the hint and got a job that didn't encourage his delusions of grandeur. Now he's got a movie about how he got a dog smarter
      • The greater question here is not whether Jon Katz is related to the producers... but whether, in this post-9/11 era, any of us can truly say that we are more than a few degrees of separation from the producers ourselves? And what does that say...
        It says that the line between idiocy and intelligence is thin and red.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kypper ( 446750 )
        That was just fantastic. Thanks for making my day.

    • This dog was stolen (Score:3, Informative)

      by SoCalChris ( 573049 )
      I'm not saying that the dog was living a good life, but he flat out stole the dog, and then wrote an article about how the dog was stolen.

      http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2113564&GT1=6 082 [slate.com]
      • but he flat out stole the dog, and then wrote an article about how the dog was stolen.
        If the story is to be believed, then he didn't steal the dog, someone else did. He did, however, receive stolen property.
      • I wonder if the farmer whose dog was stolen is going to want a cut of the movie's revenue. Maybe he will press charges against Katz for receiving a stolen dog. I hope not; I don't want Katz to go to jail, which would give him even more time to turn out more drivel.

        I like the "underground railroad" aspect of it; likens the dog to a human slave, with all the attendant sympathies. Maybe I should try that excuse if I get picked up for shoplifting: "But this $400 leather jacket was being abused, just sitting

      • Re:This dog was stolen (Score:4, Funny)

        by abigor ( 540274 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @08:26PM (#17009868)
        No, Junis dug it up out of the sand along with his Commodore 64, and sent the dog to Katz after using his trusty Commodore to purchase food from Pets.com.
      • Go on, I dare ya
      • Wow... Just wow... I always thought jonkatz took too much abuse on here. Yeah, he overdid it on finding ways to tie anything into "our electronic, post-Columbine world," but gloating about stealing private property? That's quite a low. I find his implied threat particularly repulsive: "The Internet has made every dog a potential national adoptee." In other words, if we don't like what we observe about the way you treat your dog, we'll steal him, too. Moreover, the article conveys only the perp's side

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by topham ( 32406 )

          The best part?

          The 'liberated' dog had issues and was potentially violent.

          Gee, you think maybe the first owner determined that the dog had issues and potentially dangerous?

      • Re:This dog was stolen (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) * on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @12:01AM (#17011682) Homepage Journal
        Speaking as a professional dog trainer, this sort of crap just fuels every sort of problem people can have with their pets, including the notion that it's okay to just confiscate dogs because you don't like their owners.

        Plus he's supporting the "animal rights" loons by his willingness to be part of this outright theft. They're NOT about being good to animals; they're about depriving people of *human* rights. Hmm... they say dogs are equivalent to children, and it's okay to steal a dog if they don't like how it's kept. What if "activists" don't like how you raise your kids, should they be allowed to just take them??

        I got along okay with Katz until he was a party to stealing that dog.

        I wonder if the original owner knows where his dog is.

        As to "Orson", my experience is that if the dog is the least little bit "off", people like Katz make the dog's behaviour vastly worse than it would be in the hands of someone who actually knows what they're doing. And THESE are the people "rescuing" dogs -- often dogs that are psychologically marginal in the first place (there *is* inherited psychosis in dogs).

        One has to wonder how much of this is by DESIGN, to cause people to fear their pets and be more willing to give them up. After all, PETA and HSUS both have a stated goal of ELIMINATION OF PET OWNERSHIP.

    • I sort of assumed he had gone the way of the dodo


      It's spelled "doo-doo".

  • Roland (Score:5, Funny)

    by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:08PM (#17008904) Homepage Journal
    In other news, Tom Cruise to play Roland Piquepaille.

    -Peter

    PS: Dude, you're being very un-dude right now.

  • Jon Katz? (Score:3, Funny)

    by zerocool^ ( 112121 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:10PM (#17008918) Homepage Journal

    I thought he was dead!

    I've had him blocked in my preferences since 2000, when the feature was introduced. Voices from the hellmouth, indeed. What really happened at columbine (as told by someone who hasn't been a highschool kid in 30 years, and who was a thousand miles from colorado when it happened).

    Now, he wrote a book about a cat. I wonder if it's as preachy as his other dribble? I'd guess so if it's a hollywood movie now.

    In conclusion, DIAF. All you new slashdotters that missed him, be glad. He used this website as his personal soapbox.

    ~Wx
    • Actually, for being out of school for 30 years- his Voices from the Hellmouth was pretty damned good. But you're right- he used Slashdot as his personal soapbox, and now that his main topic is dogs, I'm glad he's retreated to Slate, which can appreciate his right-coast elietist ramblings.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kaffiene ( 38781 )
      In conclusion, DIAF. All you new slashdotters that missed him, be glad. He used this website as his personal soapbox.
       
      ~Wx
      Rather like Zonk?
  • Is this the dog that (supposedly) started chewing on his graphics card during his ill-fated attempt to run Linux?

    (I cringe at the thought of what useful information could have been stored in the neurons that were holding that shred of memory...)

    • I think it was the motherboard. (Score:5, Informative)

      by khasim ( 1285 ) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:19PM (#17009056)
      He had ordered a new PC via mail order. When it was delivered, the cards were loose. So loose that his dog picked up the motherboard in its mouth and walked around the house.

      Anyone who has actually assembled a computer will see the flaws in his stories. Or anyone who has owned a dog.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GoofyBoy ( 44399 )
        Or anyone who can read.
      • Well, there was this one time my sister's 14mo old labrador ran smack into my case, which had the sidepanel off and knocked it's head right into the motherboard. It didn't unseat it, or undo any screws, it bent a couple capacitors but hell it didn't even reboot. I got some bad sectors from the rattling around and eventually had to replace the power supply, HD and blow some dog hair out of the case. The mobo worked for years after that running my SMB shares and print server...

        Though I guess, as the parent

  • Some people are cat people (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Marxist Hacker 42 ( 638312 ) * <seebert42@gmail.com> on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:11PM (#17008940) Homepage Journal
    Some people are dog people, and Jon Katz is a dog person despite being named Katz. I don't know if that explains why his version of "mid-life crisis" was "tinfoil hat" theories about Columbine followed by plugging his own books on Slashdot, but if I ever go that crazy, I hope to have friends like Cmdr Taco around to let me promote my own books.

  • That border collie... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Angostura ( 703910 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:12PM (#17008968)
    ...really tied the room together, man.
  • Is this the story about a man his dog and a commodore 64 and their fight to free the columbine children from afghanistan?
    If not I am not seeing it.
    :)

  • I can understand why Katz liked his dog. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by davmoo ( 63521 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:14PM (#17009000)
    I can understand why Katz and his dog were so close. What Katz wrote was almost identical to what came out of his dog's rear end.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's so amusing to see a comment mentioning the "rear end" moderated as insightful.
  • I'm looking forward to the heartwarming scene where he and his dog bond while watching videos on his TRS-80.

  • Cut from the write-up as submitted... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Robotech_Master ( 14247 ) * on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:16PM (#17009016) Homepage Journal
    Further amusement comes from this article [wptimes.com] about the movie's filming, with this quote from the owner of the house used to double for Katz's:

    Mercaldi said she was looking forward to seeing the film, with her home of 13 years as a co-star, "especially since they trashed it," she said. "The character was a real slob, so it doesn't look like our house."

  • And Junis? (Score:5, Funny)

    by dedazo ( 737510 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:17PM (#17009034) Journal
    Who plays Junis? Kevin Federline?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dr_dank ( 472072 )
      Maybe that kid from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is free for the project.

      Katz (takes long bong hit): Dude, we should totally get some pizza. I'm feeling post-Columbine munchies
      Juniz: Hallo esteemed friend JONKATZ, I would like to compile GNU/HURD on my amiga while watching latest hollywood blockbuster like Problem Child. Show me the money, wheres the beef?

  • This makes me all verklempt thinking about the first time I learned to block Slashdot articles.
    • This article really pulled all of us old-timers out of the woodwork. :) It's like a special club of those of us sane enough to have blocked JonKatz articles all those years ago.

  • Predictions (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Dirtside ( 91468 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:31PM (#17009226) Journal
    Don't get me wrong, I think Jeff Bridges is great (Tron atones for a multitude of sins), but in my family we have a saying: "Want your movie to fail? Cast Jeff Bridges."
  • It sounds interesting, but I really have to wonder how a movie like this fits into the post-Columbine world of today...

    [begin long dissertation]

  • Odd (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheRealFixer ( 552803 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:37PM (#17009306)
    I'm just surprised that in a post-Columbine world, this movie would get made.
  • IANAL(or movie exec), but as a drama I can see this moving working. As a comedy this movie may likely be another one of the many bombs produced by has been actors wanting to cash in on their name...ex The Shaggy Dog or Dr Doolittle.

  • GUH!? (Score:2)

    by duguk ( 589689 )
    Wtf...

    Well, it is Tuesday.

    /me gets all nostalgic

    Monkeyboi

  • Ad Hominem (Score:4, Funny)

    by autocracy ( 192714 ) <(slashdot2007) (at) (storyinmemo.com)> on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:46PM (#17009422) Homepage
    Just tell me where we found a Border Collie crazier than Jon Katz...
  • The nerd in me feel so concerned about this incredible news! It really matters to me.
    Oh wait...maybe I'm just being insensitive...

  • The Dude abides. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Onan ( 25162 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:51PM (#17009458)

    Ah, JonKatz. The sole reason that I finally relented and created a user account, just so I could filter out his inane babbling. Good times, good times.

    • Re:The Dude abides. (Score:5, Funny)

      by daveb ( 4522 ) <davebremer@g m a i l.com> on Monday November 27, 2006 @08:02PM (#17009586) Homepage
      yeah - he was the first, and I think ONLY, person I ever filtered out.

      It wasn't just that he talked crap about stuff he doesn't know about (hell this IS slashdot after all). It was the volume of crap which seemed to get a high profile that drove me to figure out what my profile was for.

      He was an idiot. I doubt much has changed.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by garcia ( 6573 )
        He was an idiot. I doubt much has changed.

        I swear that Zonk is really Jon Katz. They're both similarly retarded.

      • Re:The Dude abides. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Profane MuthaFucka ( 574406 ) <busheatskok@gmail.com> on Monday November 27, 2006 @10:46PM (#17011144) Homepage Journal
        That is *precisely* why he started writing about dogs instead of geeks. He found out that geeks are smart, and we don't accept bullshit, lies, or false sentimentality.

        Now, imagine a morbidly obese divorced woman confined to her La-Z-Boy for months because her hip replacement is still healing. She has a bag of knitting on the floor, and Oprah Winfrey on the television, playing just a little too loud. In her lap is a little yap of a dog, maybe it's a Yorkie. It could be a Cocker Spaniel too.

        When she gets on the Internet, the first thing she does is log into Yahoo Groups and finds the discussion area for Yorkies. Maybe the group moderator named the fucking thing sweet_yorkie_lovers or something. The moderator and everybody in the Yahoo Group is a similarly divorced obese 40-ish woman, and they write stupid shit like "litle Buster just LUVS it when i scrtahc his tumy." (SIC) Someone else replies "LOL".

        That's who Katz is writing for now.

        Basically Katz is an amazing and cynical opportunist. He THOUGHT he could do his shit over here, because hey, we're socially inept geeks, right? Well that didn't work out too well, so he found a much more, ummmm, less critical audience who eats that shit right up.

        Jon Katz is my fucking hero.
        • Good post. Hopefully the Yorkies won't get all torqued off and start hopping around and barking frenetically over Katz' book. I'm sure their owners would get upset, and the darn little things tend to pee when excited.

          Conservatism is a failed ideology which has joined communism in the trash heap of history.

          I hope you're not basing this claim on the past 6 years, because in the past 6 years there wasn't much conservatism going on.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by khallow ( 566160 )

          The moderator and everybody in the Yahoo Group is a similarly divorced obese 40-ish woman, and they write stupid shit like "litle Buster just LUVS it when i scrtahc his tumy." (SIC) Someone else replies "LOL".

          This stuff just writes itself.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by acidrain ( 35064 )
      I'm Katz is what /. implemented filtering by author for. In theroy the content is catagorized in some way that you can sort for what you want, without just thinking poster == crap. Anyone out there even filtering out a specific person posting content these days?

  • First the Simpsons Live Animated, now Dr Katz? (Score:4, Funny)

    by BubbleSparkxx ( 879715 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:52PM (#17009468)
    wow - i didn't know that the Dr Katz cartoon had such a big fanbase to warrant a live action movie. My head always hurt after watching it, with all the squiggly lines and all. So will Jeff Bridges be shaving his head or just going to wear a wig?

  • fear and loathing (Score:4, Funny)

    by spoonyfork ( 23307 ) <spoonyfork AT gmail DOT com> on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:54PM (#17009492) Journal

    Out of suffering comes creativity. You cannot spell painting without pain.

    We have suffered much for Jon's art. Must we suffer more?

  • Fuck Katz (figure of speech) who is going to play me? I really can't think of anyone in hollywood sexy enough to cover it.

  • "...a border collie crazier than he is."

    Wow. That is one farked up dog. The poor thing.

    (Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the meatloaf.)

  • aaaagh! (Score:4, Funny)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <{aaaaa} {at} {SPAM.yahoo.com}> on Monday November 27, 2006 @08:23PM (#17009834) Journal
    Taco! there is something wrong with slashcode. I blocked these jon katz stories ages ago. Heck i never even read the Junis story on slashdot until someone told me. WTF is this doing on the front page. Where should i submit the bug?

  • Good karma from Jon (Score:5, Funny)

    by El_Smack ( 267329 ) on Monday November 27, 2006 @08:44PM (#17010058)
    I went from 0 to +50 Karma just pointing out the most obvious flaws in his "articles". Good times.

  • 560 N. Moorpark Rd., #236
    Thousand Oaks, CA. 91360

    Jul 15, 1995

    DIRECTOR
    RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL
    1260 Avenue of the Americas
    New York, N.Y. 10020

    Dear Sir or Madam:

    Is it possible to rent Radio City Music Hall out for the week?

    I would be putting on my production of "CINNAMON - A LIFE IN PROGRESS." This is a warm hearted family drama. It has been playing in the Maine and Minneapolis area.

    Now it is ready for NEW YORK.

    Please let me know how I would go about renting out Radio City Music Hall


  • Nothing like the mention of Jon Katz to bring out some of the slashdot old-timers, eh? Ahh, those were the days. Learning how to block stories...
  • In the vein of something like "Where are they now?". I know we all liked to flame the heck out of him, but in a weird way, I kind of miss him. Reading this article about him reminds me of late nights coding with co-workers, eating pizza and reading an inane story about the post-columbine world that would get me upset to the point of waking me up so I could keep coding.

    Ah, the good old days.
  • Ahem.

    He's still an idiot.

    That is all.

  • I smell... (Score:2)

    by rk ( 6314 ) *

    Direct to video!

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