McG Wants To Designate An Ugly Fat Friend

After kick-starting his career with Charlie's Angels, McG has largely established himself as an action-comedy director. Sure, he directed We Are Marshall and the not-so-funny Terminator: Salvation, but between the Angels films, the short-lived TV show Fastlane and the upcoming This Means War, he has created a niche for himself in Hollywood. Whether he's dissatisfied with the label or is simply looking for something different to produce, his newest project is a head-scratcher.

McG has optioned feature rights to Kody Keplinger for her novel The DUFF, according to Variety. An acronym for "Designated Ugly Fat Friend," the book is a coming-of-age story about a seventeen year-old girl who begins to see herself as a "Duff." With her home life becoming more troublesome by the day and desperate for a distraction, she kisses a boy from her high school that she despises, but as the two grow closer she realizes that they are trapped in similar situations. Should he get the rights, McG will produce the film under his Wonderland Sound and Vision label along with Vast Entertainment.

That totally sounds like a McG movie, right? If you don't see the connection between killer robots, tight leather jumpsuits and chubby girls with domestic problems, I'm not sure that you're seeing the whole picture. Expect a revelation in the third act that the main character is actually a spy living deep undercover because the high school she is attending is actually a covert base for Skynet.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.