Dane DeHaan to star in Ziggy, which is “officially” not about that Ziggy

DeHaan’s character is further described as a “hunchback escape artist.” Again, this is exactly like the comics Ziggy, whose own grotesque physical deformities have left him completely shunned by society, save for his menagerie of wiseass animals. Time and again, the comics Ziggy must “escape” the absurdities of modern life, using the art of commenting on them humorously.

In the movie Ziggy, DeHaan falls for the fiancé (played by Mara) of a powerful media mogul—a doomed romance that has underscored every panel of the comic strip Ziggy since its inception, lending his every misfortune and foible an additional note of tragedy. “The story will chart his rise to fame and subsequent fall amid a romantic world crashing down on its own idealism,” Variety says of the film, clearly quoting from the book jacket of Ziggy Comes Up Short.

Like Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, the Ziggy movie will also complement its 1920s setting with contemporary music from Imagine Dragons producer Alex Da Kid—once more evoking the comics Ziggy in its feeling of a man perpetually out of time, and in posing the question of who the hell would find that appealing.

“Everything’s coming up roses—trouble is, I planted asparagus!” DeHaan is believed to have said.