Dennis Lehane is a pretty popular name around Hollywood. Films like Mystic River and Shutter Island are based on his novels and it seems that whenever someone attempts to give one of his stories an adaptation, it results in a lot of success. But what about writing films? Is that something that would interest the much loved author? Well, the answer seems to be yes as according to THR, 20th Century Fox has asked him to pen Travis McGee, a crime drama set to star Leonardo DiCaprio.
The film will be an adaptation of John D. MacDonald’s The Deep Blue Good-by. If you’re unfamiliar with the novel, here’s a summary from Amazon:
“Travis McGee is a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He’s also a knight-errant who’s wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: He’ll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.
McGee isn’t particularly strapped for cash, but how can anyone say no to Cathy, a sweet backwoods girl who’s been tortured repeatedly by her manipulative ex-boyfriend Junior Allen? What Travis isn’t anticipating is just how many women Junior has torn apart and left in his wake. Enter Junior’s latest victim, Lois Atkinson.
Frail and broken, Lois can barely get out of bed when Travis finds her, let alone keep herself alive. But Travis turns into Mother McGee, giving Lois new life as he looks for the ruthless man who steals women’s spirits and livelihoods. But he can’t guess how violent his quest is soon to become. He’ll learn the hard way that there must be casualties in this game of cat and mouse.”
DiCaprio is hoping to spawn a franchise out of the film and seeing as MacDonald has written 21 novels in the series, there’s certainly more than enough material to do so.
Now, apparently, the books are tough to adapt and other writers have taken a stab at them in the past but have failed to produce something worthy of putting up on the silver screen. Whether Lehane will be successful or not is unknown but if anyone can do it, it’s him.
Tell us, what do you think of Dennis Lehane writing Travis McGee?
