One of my personal favorite authors is Chuck Palahniuk. You may remember us talking about his book of short stories called Haunted in the forums awhile back. I would go into why I like the guy so much, but you can read all you want to know about him by clicking here. This post is about his book titled Choke, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight when they bought it for $5 million at Sundance. At the time, they announced the release date as August 1st. They have now announced the released date as September 26th. Read on for plot synopsis and possible reasons for this move.

First off, for those of you who did not read the Chuck link, you are already somewhat familiar with the guy, in regards to film. He is the writer of a book that was later turned into a little movie, directed by David Fincher (Zodiac, Se7en), that starred Ed Norton and Brad Pitt called Fight Club. Choke is about a med-school dropout named Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell). He has a deranged mother that he has in an expensive, private mental hospital. In order to pay for this, he alternates between being a historical reenactor and scamming wealthy people. He scams them by pretending to choke in upscale restaurants. The person who “saves” him unwittingly has entered into a parasitic relationship with Victor in which he preys on the Good Samaritan nature of the person. When his mother reveals to Victor who his father really is, Victor enlists the help of his best friend Denny (Brad Henke), a recovering chronic masturbator and his mother’s beautiful physician (Kelly Macdonald) to help prove his divine parentage before it will be impossible to do so.

As for the move, it seems to be a smart one. Fox Searchlight has had a lot of success with the last Friday of July or the first Friday of August as release dates for new films as shown with films like Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State. However, since this film would be going up against some highly anticipated competition in the form of American Teen, Towelhead and The Wackness, it looks like they want to avoid this as well as get the movie into theaters at a time coinciding when college students will be back in class…a demographic Choke will more than likely be marketed to.