Adding the inevitable winding footnote to the production of The End Of The Tour—the upcoming film in which Jason Segel captures the late David Foster Wallace’s estimable legacy of wearing do-rags—the Wallace estate has officially come out against the film. In a statement, lawyers for Wallace’s family say they “have no connection with, and neither endorse nor support” the film based on David Lipsky’s book Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, in which Lipsky chronicled his time spent on Wallace’s book tour, bringing his tragicomic observations and do-rags to cities all across the United States.
The statement further clarifies:
This motion picture is loosely based on transcripts from an interview David consented to eighteen years ago for a magazine article about the publication of his novel, Infinite Jest. That article was never published and David would never have agreed that those saved transcripts could later be repurposed as the basis of a movie.
The estate also argues that those involved with the film were ”made keenly aware” of the many reasons for their objection to the project, which already wrapped production last month. And while it stops short of explicitly urging a boycott of the film—which doesn’t yet have a release date—it does say Wallace’s family would prefer he be “remembered for his extraordinary writing.” Alas, it’s much more difficult to put extraordinary writing on screen than it is to dress Jason Segel up like some sort of Lollapalooza lumberjack.