Kevin Bacon will play the lead character in “I Love Dick,” Jill Soloway’s adaptation of Chris Kraus’s 1997 novel of the same name. The show, which was announced in February, follows two award-winning seasons of Soloway’s critically-acclaimed TV show, “Transparent.”
Set in Marfa, Texas, “I Love Dick” revolves around a married couple, struggling filmmaker Chris, played by Katherine Hahn, and Sylvère Lotringer, named after Kraus’s real-life ex-husband. The semi-autobiographical tale is based on the pair’s mutual obsession with Dick, a college professor who is described in press materials for the show as a “sexy silver fox” and “cowboy intellectual.”
The show and novel are based on letters Kraus and Sylvère write to Dick. “Through that obsession, Chris goes on a journey of self-discovery and eventually transformative power” that involves “the unraveling of a marriage, the awakening of an artist, and the reluctant deification of a man named Dick,” according to the official plot description. In the show, scenes from the couple’s disintegrating relationship will be replayed from alternate points of view, alá Rashomon.
In real life, Lotringer is the founder of Semiotext(e), an independent publisher and 2014 Whitney Biennial participant, along with Hedi El Kholti and Kraus. Semiotext(e) is known for publishing a wide range of books on philosophy and critical theory, as well as Kraus’s novels.
Before becoming a writer, Kraus was an artist and filmmaker, but it is unlikely that she will play any role in the show’s production. “I take great pains to trash my films, and talk about how pathetic they were, and how unwatchable and unshowable, and what a terrible mistake it was ever thinking about being a filmmaker,” she said during in a 2009 lecture, according to Art in America.