Etienne,
Thanks for the list. I've see many of them, but there are a
few I'll have to check out.
However, looking over the list reminded me of something I've
been thinking about lately. Why are so few of the books we
discuss here made into films? I only recognized two on your
list (Another Day in Paradise and Divorcing Jack) as having
come from books. Maybe I'm unaware of the written source of
one or two more, but most are still original screenplays.
Sure, a lot of the original noirs were also original
screenplays, but many, and most of the best known, were
adaptations. And many (most?) of the vintage authors we
discuss here had their work filmed -- Hammett, Chandler,
Cain, Woolrich, Goodis, Thompson, Hitchens, Hughes, Gardner,
etc, etc. Many were even drafted to write for
Hollywood.
However, Robert B Parker aside (and in his case, on the
little screen), very few of the current authors we discuss
here have had their work put on the big screen. And, Clint
Eastwood productions aside, it's seldom a big budget film
when they do. Three Willefords have been made. Lansdale had a
story (indie) filmed, of course, but what about his Hap and
Leonard books? They seem custom made for the screen. And
although Pelecanos books have been optioned, not one has been
made.
This seems very odd to me, especially since so many
contemporary crime writers are so cinematic in their
description and pacing. For instance, Douglas Winter's Run is
essentially a movie on the page, a fleshed out screenplay. I
can't believe no one has made it into a movie.
Is it simply movie economics -- why pay for a book and
adaptation, when you can just buy an original screenplay? But
we often hear of books that have been optioned, so they've
paid for the book. Or is it that movies once saw themselves
as piggybacking on the popularity of a book, but Potter/Ring
aside, few books are thought to be popular enough for
Hollywood to assume the popular audience would know them? Or
is the reading public and filmgoing public thought not to
overlap? Odd.
Mark
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