THE KEN JENNINGS STORY
ABC announced on Monday that it is in the process of making a movie of the week about the trials and tribulations of Jeopardy wunderkind Ken Jennings. The movie is to star Spiderman's Tobey Maguire in the title role and will chronicle Ken's entire life: from his paraplegic mother playing Motzart for a prenatal Ken floating around in the womb to the present day where the software engineer enjoys a life of relative luxary after winning over two million dollars on the classic trivia gameshow.
The film will show how Ken struggled through a learning disability which impared him from matching the fifty states to their respective capitals, and how an ill-fated relationship with the lovely Mimi Von-Schtupp (played by Dakota Fanning) left Ken an emotional wreck and an inch away from taking his own life at the age of nine. The scene where Fanning tells Maguire (who reportedly had to play the scene on his knees) that their relationship is over while sucking on a ringpop is already creating Golden Globe buzz for the diminutive starlet.
But the most dramatically gripping scene occurs when Ken's father (played by screen veteran Edward James Olmos) is admitted to a rehabilitation clinic to kick a methadone addiction and a teenage Ken blames himself, teetering on the brink of insanity before a broken-down junior college professor (Samuel L. Jackson) explains to Ken that "it's not his fault." This new lease on life ignites Ken's desire to learn and is responsible for his acquiring such an inordinate amount of trivia.
Ken's final struggle in the film is said to be against Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell as he did for several years on the soon-to-be defuct sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live). According to the film, Ken and Alex had a terrible feud, which culminated in Trebek hiring a hitman to kill the man which he considered to be hogging all the spotlight. The real life Trebek is quoted as saying that this is "ridiculous" and "entirely fabricated to make the movie more dramatic" while the real life Ken Jennings says that this part of the story "actually happened" and that "Trebek should be happy that the scene where he [Trebek] throws darts at Ken as he's strapped down to a rotating wheel was cut from the film."
Expect to see the movie on your local ABC station sometime next year.
SKIP TO THE END...
I was gonna write about how my new year was and all that, but there wasn't anything surprising or funny about it. I spent it with Renee and we had a good time watching Conan and drinking champagne. I didn't really figure that was worth talking about since all it would do would make you nauseous. So I'm gonna take the time I would have used to talk about that and go work on my screenplay.
So take care, and remember to always pass to the left because the right way is wrong...
ABC announced on Monday that it is in the process of making a movie of the week about the trials and tribulations of Jeopardy wunderkind Ken Jennings. The movie is to star Spiderman's Tobey Maguire in the title role and will chronicle Ken's entire life: from his paraplegic mother playing Motzart for a prenatal Ken floating around in the womb to the present day where the software engineer enjoys a life of relative luxary after winning over two million dollars on the classic trivia gameshow.
The film will show how Ken struggled through a learning disability which impared him from matching the fifty states to their respective capitals, and how an ill-fated relationship with the lovely Mimi Von-Schtupp (played by Dakota Fanning) left Ken an emotional wreck and an inch away from taking his own life at the age of nine. The scene where Fanning tells Maguire (who reportedly had to play the scene on his knees) that their relationship is over while sucking on a ringpop is already creating Golden Globe buzz for the diminutive starlet.
But the most dramatically gripping scene occurs when Ken's father (played by screen veteran Edward James Olmos) is admitted to a rehabilitation clinic to kick a methadone addiction and a teenage Ken blames himself, teetering on the brink of insanity before a broken-down junior college professor (Samuel L. Jackson) explains to Ken that "it's not his fault." This new lease on life ignites Ken's desire to learn and is responsible for his acquiring such an inordinate amount of trivia.
Ken's final struggle in the film is said to be against Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell as he did for several years on the soon-to-be defuct sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live). According to the film, Ken and Alex had a terrible feud, which culminated in Trebek hiring a hitman to kill the man which he considered to be hogging all the spotlight. The real life Trebek is quoted as saying that this is "ridiculous" and "entirely fabricated to make the movie more dramatic" while the real life Ken Jennings says that this part of the story "actually happened" and that "Trebek should be happy that the scene where he [Trebek] throws darts at Ken as he's strapped down to a rotating wheel was cut from the film."
Expect to see the movie on your local ABC station sometime next year.
SKIP TO THE END...
I was gonna write about how my new year was and all that, but there wasn't anything surprising or funny about it. I spent it with Renee and we had a good time watching Conan and drinking champagne. I didn't really figure that was worth talking about since all it would do would make you nauseous. So I'm gonna take the time I would have used to talk about that and go work on my screenplay.
So take care, and remember to always pass to the left because the right way is wrong...
