Lawrence Block, master storyteller with a worldwide following on the
printed and the pixelated page, recently
took to his home office blog in New York, high up on the 12th floor of
an building on West 12th Street, to tell
his fans a bit of happy news.
"'A Walk Among the Tombstones', the tenth book in my Matthew Scudder
series, is scheduled to begin filming in February next year," Block,
still going strong at 74, said. "Scott Frank, who
wrote the screen adaptation, will direct; the extraordinary Liam
Neeson will star as Matthew Scudder. I couldn’t be happier. Neeson as
Scudder struck me as a wonderful idea back when I saw him portray
Michael Collins in the eponymous film. I can’t think of anyone I’d
rather see in the role.''
Straight from the horse's mouth. Larry Block is in Seventh Heaven!
He added: Plans call for filming to commence in February in — get this — New York City. Readers often ask who’d be my ideal Matt Scudder (or Bernie Rhodenbarr, or Keller) and I usually change the subject. But now it’s safe to tell you that, ever since I saw him in 'Michael Collins', Neeson has been up at the top of my personal Scudder wish list. I couldn’t be happier about either the star or the writer/director, both of them genuine artists and brilliant professionals. My book’s in good hands.''
"A Walk Among the Tombstones" was first of all a great detective yarn
by master storyteller
Block, the tenth book in his ''Matthew Scudder'' series, and now
Neeson is attached to play Scudder
in Frank's screen adaptation of the chock-a-Block thriller. with
initial filming set to begin in Manhattan in
February 2013 -- if all goes as planned,
and of course, as film fans and The Wrap readers know these
announcements don't always pan out or proceed as
hoped for.
But Neeson is ''attached'' and the Scudder movie hopes to be part
of a three-year deal between Exclusive Media and Cross Creek Pictures.
"The hope is that 'Tombstones' will shoot in February, presumably once
Neeson has completed work on 'Non-Stop'," says a source.
Who's Mathew Scudder?
By the tenth book in the popular Scudder series, which began in 1976
and resulted in "A Walk
Among the Tombstones" being published in 1992,
he's become ex-cop, an unlicensed private detective and a recovering
drunk. He gets hired to try to find a woman
who has been kidnapped, and the more he learns the more he realizes this
is a very big story with an even bigger backstory.
Scudder made it to Hollywood once before when Jeff Bridges played him
"8 Million Ways To Die," according to Block. He also told me it's not
the first time that ''A Walk Among The Tombstones'' got greenlighted.
Harrison Ford was scheduled to play Scudder in the earlier deal but it
never worked out.
If "A Walk Among The Tombstones" makes it to the silver screen, Block
will be one of the happiest men on Earth, he said in a recent email.
On Block's blog, fans were quick to congratulate the veteran -- and
prolific! -- writer.
"That is just so cool about Liam Neeson playing Scudder. He’ll be
perfect for the role," said one man. Replied Block "This one’s been a
long time coming. The original book was still in the book stores
when Scott Frank first went to work on the screenplay.''
"As much as I like Jeff Bridges," opined another fan on Block's blog,
"I think Mr. Neeson will be the
definitive screen Scudder. I can’t wait to hear who plays Mick Ballou."
Mick Ballou? He's another of the writer's many characters, and Block
notes: "I’ve a feeling Ballou’s not in the screenplay. This
is the book where he goes to Ireland to dodge a RICO subpoena, and his
participation is thus limited to a couple of phone calls. But if the
film works, they’d love to do more. So perhaps we’ll see.''
About the Hollywood treatment of "8 Millions Way to Die," another
Block blog fan wrote: "I thought Jeff Bridges was an excellent choice,
but was disappointed with the setting change to California."
Block's frank response: ''I thought Jeff was very good — he pretty
much always is, whatever the
role — and Andy Garcia, too, but the film had a lot wrong with it.''
''This film’s been a long time coming, but I think it just might turn
out to have been worth the wait, Block told another fan on his blog.
"It’s a long awaited return of Scudder to the screen, and like you I
think Liam Neeson will do a good job."
One fan said that while she had never thought of Neeson for the
role if a movie was ever made, "now that someone has [fingered him],
it fits nicely," adding: "Fingers crossed that
the script doesn’t get 'Starship Troopered.'"
Block immediately replied on his blog, saying: "We don’t have to worry
about conflict between the writer and the
director, since the estimable Scott Frank is wearing both of those
hats [for this movie]. ''
Chimed on another fan: "Fortunately, I think very highly of the source
material, so I think
the movie will survive the normal [Hollywood] tinkering. I hope you
don’t lose the
extremely well-done side story of the brother, even to the sad end."
Said another fan: "Larry, I’m curious about updated phone technologies
[in the planned movie], if the adaptation is in
the present time."
Block replied: "I suspect there’ll be a lot changed in that respect,
although it’s hard to know. The last I heard, the movie’s going to take place
around the time the book came out, in the 1990s. But that could
change."
By the way, according to sources, Block's Scudder character was first
introduced in his 1976 novel titled ''The Sins of the Fathers.'' It
was suggested by some critics that Scudder's struggle with alcoholism
may have been parly autobiographical. While Block has repeatedly
refused to discuss the subject, citing AA's own tradition of
anonymity, in a column he wrote for Writer's Digest magazine, he did
write that when he created Scudder, "I let him hang out in the same
saloon where I spent a great deal of my own time. I was drinking
pretty heavily around that time, and I made him a pretty heavy
drinker, too. I drank whiskey, sometimes mixing it with coffee. So did
Scudder."
''A Walk Among the Tombstones" appeared in print in 1992. so it's been
a long 20-year wait for a film version. Fingers crossed.
http://www.movieinsider.com/m771/walk-among-the-tombstones-a-/
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