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Jon Katz To Be Played By Jeff Bridges

Robotech_Master writes, "Long-time Slashdot veterans will remember Jon Katz, the editorial writer whose Slashdot articles invariably generated heated controversy. It appears he may have the last laugh; how many of the Slashdot posters who ridiculed him went on to be played by Jeff Bridges in a movie? From the article: 'In his new book, "A Good Dog: The Story of Orson," Katz chronicles the life and death of the lovable but troubled border collie that transformed his life. It continues the story begun in Katz's last book, "A Dog Year," now being made into a movie starring Jeff Bridges as Katz.' Katz critics may get a chuckle out of the plot synopsis for the film: 'A man having a mid-life crisis has his life turned upside down when he takes in a border collie crazier than he is.'" The film should be released in late 2007.

21 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. CowboyNeal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    They've also announced that CowboyNeal will be played by a CGI'd Andy Serkis.

    1. Re:CowboyNeal by Gilmoure · · Score: 4, Funny

      They're using CGI to make a character that looks like Andy Serkis?

      If I wear them elsewhere, they chafe.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
  2. Roland by pete-classic · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, Tom Cruise to play Roland Piquepaille.

    -Peter

    PS: Dude, you're being very un-dude right now.

    1. Re:Roland by bunions · · Score: 4, Funny

      Co-starring an irate Corey Feldman as Zonk.

      --
      there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
  3. That border collie... by Angostura · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...really tied the room together, man.

  4. Re:Good casting by s20451 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope they get Wilmer Valderrama to play Junis.

    --
    Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
  5. And Junis? by dedazo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who plays Junis? Kevin Federline?

    --
    Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
  6. I think it was the motherboard. by khasim · · Score: 5, Informative

    He had ordered a new PC via mail order. When it was delivered, the cards were loose. So loose that his dog picked up the motherboard in its mouth and walked around the house.

    Anyone who has actually assembled a computer will see the flaws in his stories. Or anyone who has owned a dog.

  7. Re:This dog has fleas by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Indeed, the way of the dodo -- like the American educational system. In its place, a Satanic hellhole of perfidious opporession. The greater question here is not whether Jon Katz is related to the producers... but whether, in this post-9/11 era, any of us can truly say that we are more than a few degrees of separation from the producers ourselves? And what does that say for our crazy, mixed-up culture, when so many of our voices are forever silenced, gagged by forces every bit as insidious as the MPAA itself? I say here's to the new heroes of this tumultuous age, so powerfully exemplified by the likes of Jon Katz and the heart-wrenching experiences to which he was subjected in this, the cruelest of online forums.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  8. Odd by TheRealFixer · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm just surprised that in a post-Columbine world, this movie would get made.

  9. Re:This dog has fleas by zero1101 · · Score: 5, Funny

    oh, THAT guy.

  10. The Dude abides. by Onan · · Score: 4, Funny


    Ah, JonKatz. The sole reason that I finally relented and created a user account, just so I could filter out his inane babbling. Good times, good times.

    1. Re:The Dude abides. by daveb · · Score: 4, Funny

      yeah - he was the first, and I think ONLY, person I ever filtered out.

      It wasn't just that he talked crap about stuff he doesn't know about (hell this IS slashdot after all). It was the volume of crap which seemed to get a high profile that drove me to figure out what my profile was for.

      He was an idiot. I doubt much has changed.

    2. Re:The Dude abides. by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Funny

      That is *precisely* why he started writing about dogs instead of geeks. He found out that geeks are smart, and we don't accept bullshit, lies, or false sentimentality.

      Now, imagine a morbidly obese divorced woman confined to her La-Z-Boy for months because her hip replacement is still healing. She has a bag of knitting on the floor, and Oprah Winfrey on the television, playing just a little too loud. In her lap is a little yap of a dog, maybe it's a Yorkie. It could be a Cocker Spaniel too.

      When she gets on the Internet, the first thing she does is log into Yahoo Groups and finds the discussion area for Yorkies. Maybe the group moderator named the fucking thing sweet_yorkie_lovers or something. The moderator and everybody in the Yahoo Group is a similarly divorced obese 40-ish woman, and they write stupid shit like "litle Buster just LUVS it when i scrtahc his tumy." (SIC) Someone else replies "LOL".

      That's who Katz is writing for now.

      Basically Katz is an amazing and cynical opportunist. He THOUGHT he could do his shit over here, because hey, we're socially inept geeks, right? Well that didn't work out too well, so he found a much more, ummmm, less critical audience who eats that shit right up.

      Jon Katz is my fucking hero.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  11. First the Simpsons Live Animated, now Dr Katz? by BubbleSparkxx · · Score: 4, Funny

    wow - i didn't know that the Dr Katz cartoon had such a big fanbase to warrant a live action movie. My head always hurt after watching it, with all the squiggly lines and all. So will Jeff Bridges be shaving his head or just going to wear a wig?

  12. Re:Jon Katz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > Seriously though, I think a few things might have changed in thirty fucking years. Like the whole cultural backdrop.

    Lets see, civilization has been around for about 6000 years or so. During this time teens:
        - sometimes felt alienated
        - sometimes fell in love
        - sometimes were enslaved or exploited
        - sometimes got sand kicked in their faces
        - sometimes had little to hope for
        - sometimes were harassed by bullies
        - etc, etc, etc

    So there are some minor differences, so what? It's not like we're talking about silicon-based lifeforms here. Trying to understand the lives of other people is what historians, anthropologies and authors do. It's their job, and they are often good at it.

    The pathetic thing is the tendency for people to think that their situation is special and nobody has ever been in that situation or could even comprehend it. Man, kids griping about how tough it is to be a kid today should be drop-shipped into Bagdad or Sudan to see what they think about tough lives.

  13. Re:Good casting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    I hope they get Wilmer Valderrama to play Junis.

    For those with shorter memories, read about Junis in one of Katz' greatest hits "A message from Kabul". Highly recommended in this post-Columbine world.
  14. Good karma from Jon by El_Smack · · Score: 4, Funny

    I went from 0 to +50 Karma just pointing out the most obvious flaws in his "articles". Good times.

    --


    There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
    1. Re:Good karma from Jon by Moofie · · Score: 4, Funny

      Come on, that's like kicking puppies that don't have any legs.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  15. Re:John Katz by NDPTAL85 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The only reason why his Hellmouth article was anything near decent is because it covered a national tragedy that was pretty much non-technical in nature. So the Columbine killers played DOOM, big whoop. 30 years ago they would have been playing Dungeons and Dragons....the board game version.

    People here on Slashdot hate JonKatz because he's a non-geek. He is practically computer illiterate yet he weighed in on highly technical subjects like he knew first thing about them. Look up his other articles. You'll see.

    --
    Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
  16. Re:This dog was stolen by Reziac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Speaking as a professional dog trainer, this sort of crap just fuels every sort of problem people can have with their pets, including the notion that it's okay to just confiscate dogs because you don't like their owners.

    Plus he's supporting the "animal rights" loons by his willingness to be part of this outright theft. They're NOT about being good to animals; they're about depriving people of *human* rights. Hmm... they say dogs are equivalent to children, and it's okay to steal a dog if they don't like how it's kept. What if "activists" don't like how you raise your kids, should they be allowed to just take them??

    I got along okay with Katz until he was a party to stealing that dog.

    I wonder if the original owner knows where his dog is.

    As to "Orson", my experience is that if the dog is the least little bit "off", people like Katz make the dog's behaviour vastly worse than it would be in the hands of someone who actually knows what they're doing. And THESE are the people "rescuing" dogs -- often dogs that are psychologically marginal in the first place (there *is* inherited psychosis in dogs).

    One has to wonder how much of this is by DESIGN, to cause people to fear their pets and be more willing to give them up. After all, PETA and HSUS both have a stated goal of ELIMINATION OF PET OWNERSHIP.

    --
    ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?