I like Fight Club, and so a few months ago I tried to force myself to embrace the books of it's original author Chuck Palahniuk. It didn't work. Sorry, much like Philip K. Dick, the guy's stuff just works better as a movie. So though you might not want to wade through Palahniuk's stuff in paperback, there's good cause to get excited whenever some studio snatches him up for another movie project.

The latest, according to Dark Horizons is that Universal has acquired the rights to the Palahniuk novel "Choke". The title accurately describes its contents. It's the story of a con artist named Victor Mancini whose scam is faking choking in restaurants for cash to care for his sick mother. He's also a sex-addict and a med-school dropout. Fun guy.

Paul Bernbaum is being brought in to adapt the book into a screenplay. The quick bit of net scanning I did before doesn't exactly indicate glowing reviews for the novel, so Bernbaum may have his work cut out for him to Heimlich something watchable out of Choke.