| Mandate PIctures (Juno, Drag Me To Hell, 30 Days of Night) has picked up the rights to the 2008 novel You Are a Miserable Excuse For a Hero by Onion scribe Bob Powers. Powers' "Just Make a Choice" system is a riff on the Choose Your Own Adventure model (cool British kids preferred Fighting Fantasy, which worked on the same principle). The book's protagonist - ie you - enjoys a successful blind date, following which his potential new squeeze is kidnapped. The book then presents him/you with ongoing opportunities to either attempt to save the day, or to run and hide, fearing that a daring rescue looks like a bit too much of a commitment this early in the relationship. The project was shopped to Mandate by screenwriter DV DeVincentis, whose credits include High Fidelity and the awesome Grosse Point Blank. He was attracted to the project because ""I wanted to drop the most indecisive man on the planet and his idiot friends into a fast-moving action movie and see what happens." Reluctant heroes arguably always work best: think Bruce in Die Hard, who really does not want to be there, or The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Arthur Dent. Seems to us like this is potentially a perfect marriage of writer and material, at a production company with the right sensibilities. And given the writer's CV, can we expect to see John Cusack aboard before long? | 
