Wonder Boys (2000) - Synopsis

Wonder Boys (2000)

An unfinished novel, a stolen car, a murdered pet, an unstable student, a fed-up wife, and a pregnant lover - it's safe to say that Grady Tripp has a number of issues to deal with this weekend. Grady is a 50ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years - not since he wrote his award-winning Great American Novel 7 years ago. It's hardly surprising, then, that his college's annual literary festival fills the former wonder boy with more than his usual quota of self-doubt and anxiety. This festival weekend, however, proves even worse than he could have imagined as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy, James Leer. He's Grady's most gifted writing student. He's also a fluent liar whose peculiar behavior launches the professor on a picaresque odyssey of self-discovery.

Michael Douglas stars in the comedy "Wonder Boys," directed by Curtis Hanson. A Paramount Pictures and Mutual Film Company presentation of a Scott Rudin production, the film also stars Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jnr., Katie Holmes, Rip Torn and Richard Thomas. The screenplay is by Steve Kloves based on the novel by Michael Chabon. Scott Rudin and Curtis Hanson are the producers, and Adam Schroeder and Ned Dowd are the executive producers. Paramount Pictures, which is part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc., will distribute the film domestically while Mutual Film International will distribute internationally.