Craig Finn Done Writing Screen Adaptation of Chuck Klosterman Book

Posted on Nov 25th 2009 11:00AM by Dan Reilly
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Last month, Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn revealed that he was co-writing the screenplay for a film adaptation of Chuck Klosterman's celebrated book, 'Fargo Rock City.' Now, the singer reveals that he and 'Late Show With David Letterman' writer Tom Ruprecht have finished their version.

"That's been done just for a little bit," Finn tells Spinner. "It was fun to do. At this point it's just a script. I'd love to do something like it again. At this time, I don't know what will happen with the project."

Like many great undertakings, the project started on a whim. "Tom just said 'We should do this,'" Finn says. "He had an idea of a script based on the book and he asked me to help him. We went in and knocked it out, mostly over his break in August. He had a two-week break, so we really pushed hard and then we slept on it for a little bit, like a month then came back and made some changes. I just saw Chuck the other day and he read it and he was happy with it, which was a relief obviously."

Growing up in Minnesota, Finn could relate to Klosterman's autobiography of growing up as a metalhead in rural North Dakota. "I think I brought sort of a Midwestern sensibility to it from growing up there and understanding what those wide open spaces look like," he says. As for his relationship to Klosterman, Finn says, "I've seen him in bars and talked to him there and we've hung out a couple times. We're definitely friendly."

While Finn has no plans to write anything else other than new Hold Steady music -- he says they currently have six or seven new songs that they've been performing -- he does admit to an aborted attempt at writing a novel last year. "I tried to write a novel last year. I got into it and it just wasn't very good," he says. "I started to question my motives for writing it too. I started to ask if the world needed it or if I was just doing it to prove to myself that I can."

So, what was it about? "I don't want to say because I might revisit it," he says. "For now, it's on hold."

Looks like Hold Steady fans will just have to be satisfied with the upcoming reissues of Finn's former rock band, Lifter Puller, which will be released on Dec. 1.