The Stake made mention a while back of the forthcoming David Foster Wallace bio-pic to star Jason Segel as DFW and Jesse Eisenberg as David Lipsky.

That film, title The End of the Tour, continues its march toward production. But today comes news that the estate of David Foster Wallce is not on board with this project.

Here’s the full statement, released by DFW’s estate:

“The David Foster Wallace Literary Trust, David’s family, and David’s longtime publisher Little, Brown and Company wish to make it clear that they have no connection with, and neither endorse nor support ‘The End of the Tour.’ 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 Trust was given no advance notice that this production was underway and, in fact, first heard of it when it was publicly announced. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no circumstance under which the David Foster Wallace Literary Trust would have consented to the adaptation of this interview into a motion picture, and we do not consider it an homage.”

When the news of The End of the Tour broke, my initial response was to wonder who exactly the audience was for this film. The literary bio-pic is a genre unto itself, and one I’m always interested to partake in when the world of books finds its way onto the big screen, even if they’re often dreary affairs. Everyone from Shakespeare and Virgina Woolf to Iris Murdoch and Kafka have been subject to the bio-pic treatment in recent years. Popularity or relevance of an author’s work has never been a significant metric on the success (or failure) of a literary bio-pic.

Personally, I’m more a fan of ambitious adaptations than bio-pics. I would much rather see some young filmmaker go all out and take on Infinite Jest. Can you imagine?

Opposition to a bio-pic isn’t particularly shocking news, frankly. And has little bearing on whether James Ponsoldt will do justice to the life of a beloved, if not popular, literary figure like DFW.

Here is a photo of Jason Segel in character as David Foster Wallace.