Super Size Me was an entertaining documentary of fast food’s deleterious effects on a human lab rat, but it mostly side-stepped the litany of broader economic and social ills brought on by our collective McDiet. Austin’s own Richard Linklater will be picking up the muckraking slack this fall when he begins a film adaptation of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser’s wide-ranging expose of industrialized dining.

Fast Food Nation should make a killer documentary, right? Well, not exactly. As reported on CHUD, the catch is that Linklater is apparently planning to transform Schlosser’s fact-filled report into a fictionalized drama. He already has one of the most eclectic CV’s in film, so I suppose this adaptation is right in Rick’s wheelhouse of weird. And when it’s produced by the guy who molded the Sex Pistols, who knows what might happen?

This announcement certainly ups the voltage on my Richard Linklater Dig-O-Meter. It used to run pretty low during the SubUrbia / Newton Boys era, but has been spiking consistently since Waking Life. Not many filmmakers would have the confidence to tackle stoner nostalgia, philosophical animation, family comedy, and character drama in the same career, let alone the skill to actually make any of them work. If anyone can make me look forward to a movie about pre-fab grease bombs and corporate farming, it would be Richard Linklater.

… although this is one flick I will probably skip watching over a burger and fries at the Alamo.