Paul B Rainey’s Why Don’t You Love Me to be a Jennifer Lawrence Film

Posted in: A24, Comics, Current News, Movies | Tagged: Drawn and Quarterly, jennifer lawrence, paul b rainey, Why Don’t You Love Me

Small press comic publisher Paul B Rainey’s Why Don’t You Love Me is to be adapted as an A24 film starring Jennifer Lawrence.

I’ve been a fan of small press comic book creator Paul B Rainey for decades, ever since I encountered his comic Memory Man. This following up with the likes of his graphic novel No Time Like The Present, his awesome Thunder Brother: Soap Division, happy endings to Star Wars films otherwise denied them, spreading himself across the walls of Milton Keynes, a strong reaction to Boris Johnson, creating the wonderful Pope Francis Goes To The Dentist, adapting a David Bowie musical into comic book form, or his winning the Observer Jonathan Cape Prize in 2020. He’s now started turning up in Viz Comic a lot as well. He even got a quote from a certain someone on the back of the print graphic novel collection of hs  Why Don’t You Love Mestrips.

Why Don’t You Love Me? graphic novel by Paul Rainey was collected and published by Drawn & Quarterly on the 24th of January 2023. But it looks like it may be going a lot further for Paul B Rainey. He tweeted a link to a Variety article saying “Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not a mental breakdown! A24 has optioned the rights to Why Don’t You Love Me? with plans to develop my graphic novel for film! Jennifer Lawrence is set to star. She is also set to produce with Ari Aster.”

The article also states that Robert Funke of On Becoming a God in Central Florida is writing the screenplay. Other produces listed include Justine Ciarrocchi for Lawrence’s prodiction company Excellent Cadaver, Lars Knudsen and Emily Hildner of Square Peg, which does just sound like a lot of names when I am really, really excioyed for Paul B Rainey. Who wil be credited as executive producer. I expect he is going to have fun finding out what that actually means. I expect everyone else at Viz Comic will want to know as well.

Why Don’t You Love Me? follows a miserable couple, Claire and Mark, struggling through their marriage with kids while “feeling like something is not quite right in their reality,” teases A24. I mean, that’s one way of putting it. I’d go with “everyday marriage as a horror movie”. Here’s the full bumf and some more examples of the strips.

“A couple struggles through their unhappy marriage in this dark science-fiction comedy Claire and Mark are in the doldrums of an unhappy marriage. She doesn’t get out of her bathrobe and chain-smokes while slumped on the couch. Mark has lost track of the days and can’t get the kids to school on time. They’ve lost interest in family and have pizza and Chinese food delivered every night. Mark sleeps on the couch and has trouble remembering his son’s name. He feels like a fraud at work but somehow succeeds. Claire stalks an ex-boyfriend. How could he have left her to this life? Claire and Mark are both plagued by the idea that this is all a dream. Didn’t they have different lives? When reports of an imminent nuclear war come on the radio, the truth begins to dawn on them: This is not the life they chose. Why Don’t You Love Me? is a pitch-black comedy about marriage, alcoholism, depression, and mourning lost opportunities. Paul B. Rainey has created a hilariously terrifying alternate reality where confusion and pain might lead people to make bad choices but might also eventually led to freedom . . . maybe.”

You can find plemty more of Paul B Rainey’s self-published work right here.

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