For his birthday this year, Kurt Vonnegut gets a movie deal.
Happy 98th birthday, Kurt Vonnegut—and congratulations! IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to the documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, with plans to release the film in the summer of 2021.
Unstuck in Time follows the celebrated, power-critiquing, gun-hating, tattoo-inspiring author over several decades, from 1982 until his death in 2007. Robert Weide, co-director of the film—also known for his work as the director of Curb Your Enthusiasm—was only 23 when he approached Vonnegut about making a documentary about his life. “I envisioned a fairly conventional author documentary,” Weide told Variety, “[but] as the decades rolled by, fate stepped in, and what I wound up with was far from conventional.” Almost 40 years later, the finished film covers Vonnegut’s life from his childhood in Indianapolis to his experience as a prisoner of war to his eventual ascendance as a literary icon—through the lens of Vonnegut and Weide’s close friendship.
You can watch the Unstuck in Time teaser—featuring a voicemail from Vonnegut to Weide—below. Afterward, if you’re still hungry for Vonnegut content, you can pregame the film’s release by taking a virtual tour of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, perusing the 50 best Slaughterhouse-Five book covers from around the world, or reading some of Vonnegut’s best writing advice.
