An unfinished novel, a stolen car, a murdered pet, an unstable student, a fed-up wife, a pregnant lover it's safe to say that Grady Tripp has a number of issues to deal with this weekend. Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years not since he wrote his award-winning great American novel seven 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.

Directed by
Curtis Hanson

Cast
Michael Douglas - Grady Tripp
Tobey Maguire - James Leer
Frances McDormand - Sara Gaskell
Robert Downey Jr - Terry Crabtree
Katie Holmes - Hannah Green
Rip Torn - Q
Richard Knox - Vernon Hardapple
Jane Adams - Oola
Michael Cavadias - Miss Sloviak
Richard Thomas - Walter Gaskell
Alan Tudyk - Traxler
Philip Bosco - Emily's Father
George Grizzard - Fred Leer
Kelly Bishop - Amanda Leer
Bill Velin - Officer Pupcik
Yusuf Gatewood - Howard

Production Co.
Scott Rudin Productions
MFF Feature Film Productions
BBC
Marubeni
Toho-Towa Company
Tele Munchen

Produced by
Lisa Grundy
Scott Rudin
Adam Schroeder
Curtis Hanson
Ned Dowd

Studio
Paramount Pictures

Writer
Michael Chabon
Steve Kloves

Music
Christopher Young