Jesse Eisenberg plays Rolling Stone Magazine writer David Lipsky circa 1996 as he travels on the final round of a book tour for “Infinite Jest” with the book’s iconic author David Foster Wallace played with warmth and humility by Jason Segal.
The Road to Cinema Podcast returns with screenwriter Donald Margulies as we discuss his work on the new film “The End of the Tour.” Margulies adapted David Lipsky’s book which chronicles his handful of days traveling with author David Foster Wallace on the last hurrah of a book tour for Wallace’s infamous work “Infinite Jest.” The duo slowly form a bond as Lipsky tries to observe and investigate the true persona behind the reclusive author which may or may not be in plain sight. Eisenberg and Segal bring humanity and heart to a journalist and a famous literary hero who both subvert their expectations of each other and the audience’s expectations of the boundaries of journalistic integrity and literary genius.
Watch the trailer for “The End of the Tour” which is now playing in New York and Los Angeles and expanding nationwide in the coming weeks.
Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter Donald Margulies shares his process for adapting Lipsky’s book “Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself” which features direct transcripts of Lipsky’s conversations with David Foster Wallace. The book was published following Wallace’s suicide in 2008. Margulies also discusses his collaboration process with director James Ponsoldt. Margulies opens up about his appreciation for the nuanced performances of actors Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segal. And we learn why Lipsky never initially published his proposed article with Wallace that was intended to be in a 1996 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.
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Screenwriter Donald Margulies with director James Ponsoldt and actor Jason Segal at the Sundance Film Festvial premiere of “The End of the Tour.”