Zach Galifianakis to star in A Confederacy of Dunces

Zach Galifianakis is set to star in the long-gestating adaptation of John Kennedy Toole’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces, Vulture reports.

Galifianakis would play Ignatius J. Reilly, a disgusting, condescending perennial scholar who works hard to avoid working and lives in New Orleans with his mother.

The Muppets‘ helmer James Bobin is in negotiations to direct the pic for producer Scott Rudin. Cedar Rapids‘ screenwriter Phil Johnston is working on the script.

There may not be a book-to-film translation as historically fraught as Dunces, which befits the novel’s own difficult road to publication.

Toole killed himself in 1969 aged 31, following the rejection of his work by Simon & Schuster. His mother tirelessly fought to see the book published, succeeding twelve years later. He was posthumously rewarded with the Pulitzer Prize for the piece.

In the three decades that have followed, a number of potential productions have been touted and ultimately fallen apart. Directors such as Harold Ramis and David Gordon Green were all linked at one time, while writers Stephen Fry and Steven Soderbergh have both turned in scripts.

John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, John Goodman, and Will Ferrell were all set to play Ignatius at one time or another.

Discuss: Do you want this adaptation to stick?