« The Few, the Proud ... the Movie Previews? | Main | SXSW 2009 Dispatch: Opening Night »

March 12, 2009

"Minotaur" Gets Optioned

Mike Jones, who until recently helmed Variety's The Circuit blog, just had his screenplay for The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, adapted from the novel by Steven Sherrill, optioned by The Gotham Group.

The story is about the mythical half man-half bull working as a short order grill cook, in a world where other mythological creatures also work in a variety of menial jobs and are treated like low-wage minorities. Says Jones, "Since they are all myths, they each have their metaphorical place, in a way. In the Minotaur's case, he's the object of all alpha-male aggression, so any stupid ex-jock that sees him wants to push his buttons. So M keeps moving to different jobs to avoid conflict."

Things get spicy when the Minotaur falls in love with a waitress at his new gig, and she with him. "When the head cook starts pushing him around, M decides to stay," adds Jones. "And since he's the Minotaur, he blows his stack. All hell breaks loose."

Jones notes that his script is very different from the book. "It's very internal, the book. I really only used the first three chapters, then went to a completely different direction."

The concept of the film sounds pretty cool to me. The film will be a live-action project, and is currently out to directors. Congrats to Jones on optioning the script; now I just need to pick up the book and read it, so I know what to expect when the movie comes out.

Posted by kvoynar at March 12, 2009 12:26 PM

Comments

Posted by: RedheadedWonder at March 13, 2009 07:09 PM

Post a comment