FX’s ‘Cat’s Cradle’ May Be Paused As ‘Man Alive,’ Other Projects Are Noah Hawley’s Priority

Known for creating one of the most acclaimed TV shows, Farg, finding work is not a problem for Noah Hawley in 2016. Despite this, the onslaught of new projects for Noah Hawley might mean his version of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle for FX could be on the back burner at the moment.

As it appears, Noah Hawley keeps heaping new projects on his plate and it could be likely that Cat’s Cradle is not able to be an immediate priority. According to Uproxx, some of Noah Hawley’s current projects besides Cat’s Cradle are Fargo Season 3, Legion, Before the Fall, and the Universal Studio’s Monsters writing group.

Now, according to Collider, the newest Noah Hawley project is not in television but in film. The new science fiction movie will be called Man Alive… and this single movie deal immediately blossomed into an “overall deal at 20th Century Fox” for Noah Hawley’s 26 Keys Productions, according to an April 24 report from Deadline.

According to his Twitter account, Noah Hawley is also putting projects like Cat’s Cradle on pause for the moment because he is getting ready for a tour around mid-May that is related to the movie Before the Fall.

However, as far as Cat’s Cradle actually becoming the FX television series that Noah Hawley promised, some hope emerges because this project is not solely in his hands. Instead, part of the work of putting out a production of Cat’s Cradle has already been taken on by development and distribution company IM Global TV, according to Deadline.

Nevertheless, Noah Hawley might be able to control his timetable because, as Gold Derby points out, FX likely sees Noah Hawley as one of their most valuable players due to Hawley having won FX a lot of awards.

Sadly, it appears that other things in Kurt Vonnegut’s world are on hold in addition to the Cat’s Cradle adaptation.

For example, Kurt Vonnegut’s former home is not selling on the real estate market, according to Indianapolis Monthly. The home was designed by Kurt Vonnegut’s father, but it has fallen in price from “$899,000 two years ago… to $674,900.”

Other parts of Kurt Vonnegut’s legacy that are still up in the air include the Kurt Vonnegut Library. According to a report from April 15 via WANE, the library still needs to reach a goal of $775,000 in donations from Kurt Vonnegut fans in order to move into their new space.

Part of the funds will go toward installing an elevator, and the other major expense is the three years of rent they must pay before the Kurt Vonnegut Library can move in.

Thankfully, according to Nuvo, the Kurt Vonnegut Library has had some progress toward its July 1 move-in date at 646 Mass Avenue. They also noted that Kurt Vonnegut’s son, Bernard, is an architect and will be donating a design for the new library.

It could also be said that Noah Hawley doing Cat’s Cradle will be good for Kurt Vonnegut’s legacy because there are a lot of people struggling to do theater adaptations of Vonnegut’s work… and Hawley’s techniques could be a guide for future adaptations.

For example, Cape Cod Times has criticism for a student production of Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and said it was too “complex.”

They went on to note that the musical adaptation of Mr. Rosewater” had a short run off-Broadway in 1979 and has not been produced very often since then… [t]he novel simply does not translate well into musical theater.”

Naturally, there will be a lot of critics out there if Cat’s Cradle becomes an FX reality, and having Vonnegut super-fans that watch each episode for errors with a magnifying glass can create a lot of pressure for the writing team.

Examples of unique elements of Kurt Vonnegut’s work that Vonnegut noted about himself is that he created each story carefully so that none of them would have a villain, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In the end, it appears that no matter how detail-oriented the adaptation of Cat’s Cradle is, Noah Hawley will be giving Kurt Vonnegut fans something of value, because the author appeals to the spirituality of many readers.

For instance, on May 1, Kurt Vonnegut was the focus of a Bustle article by writer Catherine Kovach that wrote Vonnegut’s “ideas became a part of me” and highlighted how Vonnegut gave her “a certain sort of semi-religious belief system in my own life.”

Perhaps, in the end, the Cat’s Cradle adaptation for FX will come together due to spiritual principles introduced in the book by Kurt Vonnegut such as a “karass.”

A karass is often described as “a group of people that get tied together in a cosmically significant way, even if the reasons are not initially clear.”

For now, fans will have to wait to hear if this magical karass of Cat’s Cradle writers has been crafting the FX adaptation… unbeknownst to the media.

Alternatively, as previously reported by The Inquisitr, there could be more Cat’s Cradle details revealed when Noah Hawley attends the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, from June 9 to 12.

[Picture by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]