The news that The Decemberists’ new “Calamity Song” video was to based off of David Foster Wallace’s ‘Infinite Jest’ really messed with my head at first, as someone who often pokes fun at the former and has spent too much time reading (and unsuccessfully trying to write as well as) the latter. Are these guys really going there and messing with a novel that’s closer to my heart and brain than most?

But hey, it’s not so awful. ‘Parks and Recreation’ creator Michael Schur’s vision of Eschaton, the bizarre computer and tennis ball-based war simulation game, was actually not far from my own, besides a bearded Colin Meloy being involved. Still, it made me frightened once again that some ambitious young filmmaker is going to attempt to adapt the completely unadaptable ‘Infinite Jest’ into a full-length feature. If forced to, I can maybe imagine an HBO/BBC miniseries. But really Franco, stay away.

The Decemberists – “Calamity Song”

In other disconcerting literary adaptation news, they’re going ahead and releasing another adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘The Rum Diary.’ Why this is necessary, beyond getting people to the theater to spend money on seeing Johnny Depp as Thompson again, I have no idea. 1980’s ‘Where The Buffalo Roam,’ the first adaptation with Bill Murray as Thompson, has gotten a lot of crap over the years, but something about it is oddly endearing. I’m of the opinion that this is a quick money grab, but we’ll see.

‘The Rum Diary’ trailer

Any novels that you’d prefer director – or indie-rock bands – to stay far, far away from?