Neil Jordan to direct SKIPPY DIES (not the kangaroo)

No sooner has Paul Murray's latest novel Skippy Dies been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction than multi award-winning director Neil Jordan is onboard for the adaptation. Being Irish, Jordan (The Crying Game, The Brave One, Interview With The Vampire) is an ideal candidate to translate Murray's boarding school-set tragi-comedy (or comi-tragedy, I'm not sure which), and the setting will be another great excuse for Jordan to take a production to his homeland. For anyone to whom the novel is a mystery (there's still plenty of time before it hits the big screen) the story centres on Daniel "Skippy" Juster, who has earned his nickname from an unfortunate likeness to that famous Aussie kangaroo, and his shenanigans with his chum Ruprecht. Tim Adler from Deadline reckons that the book has been described in movie circles as "South Park meets Tom Brown€™s Schooldays" (wow... what a pitch!!!). With Jordan at the helm, it can be much, much more though with no script seemingly in the works, expect an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book to come first which has financing and is gearing up for a start date.
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