Being as I wasn’t invited to star in the upcoming film adaptation of David James Duncan’s The River Why, I have to wonder what all the noise is about (maybe it has something to do with a naked Amber Heard), but The River Why continues to create buzz, the latest being a long piece in Outside magazine.

Amber Heard, fly fishing - no wonder all the fly geeks are swooning.

Amber Heard, fly fishing - no wonder all the fly geeks are swooning.

From the story:

I’m eagerly awaiting the next scene, because the crew is about to shoot the most incredible catch in the history of angling literature.

That’s saying a lot—fishermen, especially those who write fiction, are liars—but this sequence is pretty unbelievable. Waiting on the bank is 27-year-old actor Zach Gilford—best known as introverted high-school quarterback Matt Saracen on NBC’s Friday Night Lights—who plays the novel’s hero, a troubled fly-fishing prodigy named Gus Orviston.

Gus stumbles upon The River Why’s heroine, a blond fishing goddess named Eddy, as she hooks a huge steelhead with a homemade hazel pole, tosses the rod into the river to slow the fish, sheds her clothes, and subdues the leviathan by swimming after it and grabbing it underwater. Only the most imaginative of anglers could have dreamed up such a catch, which has achieved mythic status among fishermen in the 26 years since The River Why was published.

Is it me, or is the writer “eagerly awaiting the next scene” not because it’s famous – but because there’s high probability for a naked Amber Heard? (We thought so too).

Still, those eager for news about the production (and I have it from an anonymous reliable source that the production company didn’t exactly raise the bar for preparedness), will find the Outside article is a bonanza.

The legions of Amber Heard fanboys will be delighted with the Amber Heard photo gallery (oh la la), while fans of Friday Night Light’s Zach Gilford (count me among them) will no doubt be fascinated to learn his favorite fly is the Wooly Bugger – and that he’s also a backcountry (backpacking) guide (which he considers a “real” job instead of acting).

While we feel Gilford’s devotion to the guide business is admirable, we’d like to point out backcountry guides get to spend precious little time with the likes of Amber Heard and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights hottie). Buck up, buddy.

What’s the Buzz?

The fly fishing universe is all abuzz, and because we’re a fly fishing blog, we’re willing to speculate wildly as to why.

First, the fly fishing industry is hungry for another Hollywood-driven recruitment movie, and second, fly fishermen are largely geeks about this stuff. (Especially the naked fly fishing chick stuff. We’re geeks. Geeks.)

Then there’s the drama surrounding David James Duncan, his publisher and the movie rights – a scrap involving lawsuits, mudslinging and secret settlements – the kind of juicy Hollywood/celebrity crap the boring, staid world of fly fishing hardly ever gets to “enjoy.”

That’s OK, Undergrounders – our entertainment division stands ready to provide the kind of exploitive, sensationalistic in-depth coverage our geeky readers demand.

See you at the movies, Tom Chandler.

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