Fox to see if there's maybe another joke in Go The Fuck To Sleep that could sustain a movie

By Sean O'Neal | April 11, 2013 | 6:45pm

Aux Features Film

Proving again that when it comes to making movies, no idea is too small, Fox 2000 has begun moving forward on a film version of Go The Fuck To Sleep, the parody children’s book that voices the frustration parents feel that they can’t simply gas their offspring every night, because of “society.” Author Adam Mansbach’s 32-page baby-shower mainstay has already enjoyed a brief life as a viral hit back in 2011, driven by audiobook renditions from the likes of Samuel L. Jackson and Werner Herzog that lent their hostile and/or creepy incongruity to Mansbach’s anti-lullaby.

And while one might think the book’s effective, yet definitely single-serve joke has thus been fully explored, the premise ironically refuses to go to sleep, with Fox hiring Ken Marino and wife Erica Oyama Marino—who most recently worked on Burning Love together—to tease out enough variations on that joke and maybe some sort of narrative plot, if they can find the time. Obviously there are no details yet on how they plan to do that, but presumably the movie will involve parents trying and failing to get their toddler to go to sleep. And then maybe the President calls and sends the toddler on a top-secret mission to Syria. “Sorry Mom and Dad, but freedom never sleeps,” the toddler will say, as he jumps out of a helicopter.