20 years after the release of his last film “A Dirty Shame,” shock film icon John Waters might be returning to the director’s chair very soon.
In an interview with The Baltimore Fishbowl on December 22 about his famous annual Christmas parties, the “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray” filmmaker revealed that he has finished the script for “Liarmouth,” a film adaptation of his own 2022 novel of the same name. Waters further said that he turned the script over to the producers — it’s set up at Village Roadshow Pictures, which optioned the novel — and that he is currently waiting on the budget for the project.
“I’ve written the script and I turned it in and they like it and we’re doing a budget,” Waters told the Baltimore Fishbowl. “Who knows? We’ll see. We’ll see.”
“Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance” focuses on con artist Martha Sprinkles, nicknamed Liarmouth, and her romance with fellow scammer Daryl. In an interview with IndieWire prior to the publication of the novel, Waters described the book as an adventure into an “insane universe.”
“It’s about a woman who steals suitcases in airports, and she’s a very disagreeable character. You will like her because she’s so unlikeable,” Water told IndieWire. In writing a book, he said, “I didn’t have to worry about budget. I didn’t have to worry about casting. I didn’t have to worry about the children, and how they have to only work four hours a day and have a schoolteacher. All that kind of stuff I don’t have to worry about, so I could really be free to explore this insane universe that I set up in the book. That’s the only thing you have to stay true to. No matter how crazy the plot or how much fun you make of narrative and everything, it still has to be true to the world that you set up in the book.”
The film adaptation of “Liarmouth” was announced in October 2022. Waters will write and direct the film himself, while Steve Rabineau will produce. In a statement accompanying the announcement, Waters described the novel as “the craziest thing I’ve written in a while” and said he was “thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”
Elsewhere in the Baltimore Fishbowl interview Waters, who is 77, expressed that despite his age and the long gap between directorial efforts, he has no desire to retire.
“I jump up every day to go to work,” Waters said. “People say why aren’t you going to retire? Because I wish I believed in another life after, but I don’t. So I want to see every person, every movie, read every book, go everywhere in the world.”
