Fast Food Nation
8RELEASE DATE Oct. 20
WHY WE CAN'T WAIT Richard Linklater is always a fascinating director (A Scanner Darkly, School of Rock), so we're intrigued by how he'll adapt a nonfiction polemic into a dramatic story.
THE PREMISE We'll meet several characters (played by such actors as Greg Kinnear, Kris Kristofferson, Patricia Arquette, Wilmer Valderrama, and Linklater regular Ethan Hawke) who work at various links of the fast-food chain, from the slaughterhouse to the drive-thru window.
SOURCE Eric Schlosser's 2001 bestseller
THE BACKSTORY The director and his crew snuck into a real slaughterhouse for some guerilla filmmaking. ''We were all like workers, with the little hairnets and mouth protectors and boots,'' Linklater says. ''It was pretty wild.''
BURNING QUESTION Will we be enthralled, grossed out, or both?
COME FOR Linklater, who excels at sprawling, Altman-esque ensemble pieces (see Dazed and Confused)
STAY FOR Catalina Sandino Moreno (shown), the Oscar-nominated star of Maria Full of Grace, here playing an illegal immigrant working in an abbatoir
