I'm not clear how you turn a non-fiction book about the fast food industry into a piece of fiction with, presumably, a plot. I'm going to start proposing my own fictional movie: "Today's Stock Market Numbers!" Oh, it'll be a thriller, full of ups and downs.

wait, wait, wait. Didn't the catholic church have the opposite fear about the davinci code? And didn't they have the contrapositive hope about the passion of the christ? (not sure if i got that last one right...)

Hey Crazymonk, I'm glad that you posted this. I just heard about this movie yesterday, and I wondered how the fuck it was going to be done. Doesn't the movie look like a fictionalization inspired by the facts of the book? Isn't this too soon though? Aren't the wounds of Fast Food Nation still to clear in our minds? Shouldn't we wait until we have more historical perspective on this? I guess Hollywood never waits.

Too soon! With this and A Prairie Home Companion, things in the film world are getting a little bit odd. But it did look kind of fun. Maybe it will be like Thank You For Smoking, but good.

other nonfiction books have been turned into fiction films. wasn't mean girls based on a real book/study of teenage girls and clicks? any other examples?

There's a Blink movie coming out based on the Malcolm Gladwell book. Adaptation sort of fits in.

Saturday Night Fever was based on what supposedly a non-fiction piece in some magazine, but the piece turned out to be fiction. I could look this up, but I am lazy.
I am intrigued by the idea of Blink as a movie.

Don't forget the Da Vinci Code.

i would sort of toss Adaptation into the category. how about Blue Crush? also based on a susan orleans story.

The Da Vinci Code is not nonfiction, although I read that a lot of lay Catholics assume it is.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the fast food industry is already trying to discredit this movie and the author of the book, Eric Schlosser. Wish I could link it, but the WSJ is subscription-only, just like proper capitalists should be. IIRC, among the weapons they're using against Schlosser is saying that he's in favor of marijuana decriminalization. Scaree!

I am not sure about this as I didn't read the memoir, nor did I watch the show, but wasn't Kitchen Confidential (the show) merely based on (i.e. sort of ficionalized) Kitchen Confidenitial (the memoir) although they share the same name.

BTW: I am certain that The Da Vinci Code is non-fiction.

The weird thing about Fast Food Nation, and I'm sure this says more about me than about the book, was that it didn't turn me off to the fast food industry at all (certainly not as much as Supersize Me). The two sections of the book that have stuck in my head are:

1. A description of how they create the smell of fast food, after having destroyed the true, original smell of the products through freezing and shipping. The idea of having a chemical that smells exactly like a grilled hamburger has always amused me.

2. A description of how safety regulations are established at places where they kill and store meat before it gets to McDonalds. They go through how the government's regime for keeping tabs on meat was ineffective and not enforced, whereas McDonalds was considerably more strict and had the market leverage to enforce it rigidly. Through McDonald's enormous market dominance it was able to demand health/safety improvements to protect its customers (and hence itself) that nobody else could have.

I never did understand why this book turned off so many people. I'm sure part of the problem is that I'm only remembering the oddball parts.

Yes, the show Kitchen Confindential was based on the book. Not a bad show (not so good either). But a great book. As for Fast Food Nation, I jsut hope the movie ends with everyone eating at In N' Out, since that is what the writer recomends at the end of the book

I'm excited about the movie. I found the book disturbing and it
served for me as a wake up call. I gave up fast food (at least the
corporate kind) after reading the book. I think that was in the summer
of 2004-- so not that long ago. Sometimes it's hard to deal with being chastized and making other people feel guilty simply by stating that I don't eat at corporate fast food establishments.