How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel has signed on to star in The End of the Tour, which will co-star The Social Network’s Jesse Eisenberg.
Segel has been cast as Infinite Jest author David Foster Wallace and Eisenberg will play David Lipsky, a Rolling Stone reporter who followed Wallace on a tour at the height of his fame. Wallace later committed suicide in 2008.
The casting was first reported by TheWrap, which notes that the script was written by playwright Donald Margulies and is adapted from Lipsky’s Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace. The Spectacular Now director James Ponsoldt, who happened to work at Rolling Stone during college, will direct.
According to the LA Times Wallace’s own work has typically been guarded from Hollywood, although actor John Krasinski’s first film as director was based on Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. It is the only film made based on Wallace’s writings. The author’s life was also chronicled in Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by D.T. Max, which covers Wallace’s battle with depression.
Anonymous Content is producing The End of the Tour and production should start in February or March.
Segel’s next film is Sex Tape with Cameron Diaz, while Eisenberg’s next projects include Night Moves, The Double and American Ultra.
image: CBS