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John Cusack Doesn’t Sound Optimistic About Disney’s High Fidelity Reboot

John Cusack Says They'll Fuck Up High Fidelity Show

Last week, Deadline reported that Disney is developing a series for its upcoming streaming service that’s inspired by Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel High Fidelity with a female lead playing what we presume is the Rob Gordon role. John Cusack, who played Gordon in director Stephen Frears’s 2000 film adaptation, doesn’t have high hopes for a television reboot.

According to exchanges on Twitter with fans inquiring about the reboot, Cusack is onboard with a gender-flipped reimagining of the lead character, he apparently just doesn’t have faith in other people adapting Hornby’s writing.

At first, Cusack seemed to blanche at what The A.V. Club described as an “upbeat” interpretation of the source material.

During another fan interaction, Cusack bemoans the new show creators for being derivative and predicts “they’ll fuck it up” after the man he’s responding to praises his character’s “exquisite, well scored, misery.” What neither Cusack nor the fan seem to consider is perhaps prickly self-absorbed male leads who are lost in their own heads to the detriment of all their relationships stopped being compelling in the past 18 years.

“The woman part seems good,” Cusack concedes in an exchange with another fan. “The rest, not so much.”

Ugly Betty writers Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka penned the treatment. From Deadline:

Written by West and Kucserka, the High Fidelity TV series is described as a departure from the book and the movie while still capturing the romantic comedy and authentic spirit of the original source materials. I hear it centers on a record store owner — a female take on the character played in the movie by Cusack — talking straight to the camera as she chronicles past relationships.

While the Touchstone Pictures movie was rated R, I hear the TV series — an optimistic-in-tone mixtape/diary rom-com — will be PG-13 and intended for family co-viewing, consistent with Disney’s plans for a family-friendly OTT service that is not expected not feature R-rated movies or series.

The series isn’t expected to hit the small screen till 2019.