Meet Igby Slocumb. He's an angry, rebellious, and sarcastic seventeen-year-old at war with the stifling world of “ old money ” privilege into which he was born. Igby's life and family seem one way on the surface, but he's figuring out things are completely different underneath. His father, Jason, is away “recuperating from life” after a sad slide into schizophrenia. His mother, Mimi, is fierce, distant, and self-absorbed, with a long-term dependency on “little peppies” to get through the day. And his older brother, Oliver, is a shark-like young republican on the fast-track to materialism at Columbia Univerity.

In his quest to free himself from the oppressive dysfunction of his family and figure out what he wants for himself, Igby falls in with a host of ques- tionable characters, including his godfather's tro-phy girlfriend, her flamboyant pal Russell, and the terminally bored Sookie Sapperstein.

In his introduction to this book, Steers writes that Igby is about: “Being seventeen and having no idea what you want your life to be, but know-ing passionately what you don't want it to be. Mental illness and how that genetic thread binds and strangles a family. The anti-climactic absurdity aud utter finality of death. A lie-the ultimate lie for Igby. He is not who he thinks he is. All the clues are there for him littered throughout his life but he of course never thinks to look for them,”

Written and directed by Burr Steers, this united Artists and Atlantic Streamline presenta-tion, in association with Crossroads Films, stars Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum, Jared Harris, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillippe, Bill Pullman, and Susan Sarandon. The film was pro-duced by Marco Weber and Lisa Tornell.

In the acclaimed Newmarket Shooting Script series format, the book includes the complete screenplay and an introduction by Burr Steers, a photo section, production notes, and the full cast and crew credits.

 

BURR STEERS has directed numerous plays in Los Angeles- notably his critically acclaimed pro-duction of Tennessee Willams' Vieux Carre at the Los Angeles Playhouse in 1993-and has worked as an actor for Quentin Tarantino (pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs), Martin Scorsese (Naked in New York), and, recently Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco). Igby Goes Down is his first full-length screenplay and marks his directorial debut.