Casting comedy favorite Jason Segel as vaunted writer David Foster Wallace may have seemed like an odd choice at first. But according to the audiences at the Sundance Film Festival, Segel may be looking at an Oscar nomination in 2016. The End of the Tour is based on a five-day trip Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky (played by Jesse Eisenberg) took with the late author at the end of his tour for Infinite Jest. The article never ran, but Lipsky later wrote a book about it, which the film is based upon.
Wallace's estate tried to stop the film, but it doesn't sound like there are any terrible revelations about Wallace (well, besides the ones he made about himself). After the Sundance screening, Segel said he worked off Lipsky's interview tapes and every other interview with Wallace he could find.
"I think one of the things with David Foster Wallace, what’s so special about his writing is he touches on some very universal human feelings. So I tried to really pay attention to the parts of us that are the same," Segel said.
[via Vulture]
