John Katzenbach's "Red 1-2-3," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Red 1-2-3 by John Katzenbach.

The entry begins:

Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!

See, I’ve already had four of my books filmed and… well, let’s just say the results were, ah…. mixed. The trouble is, oftentimes one learns that this or that screenwriter has been hired and this or that actor is all set to play the lead role and it just seems totally dandy, great, fantastic, astonishingly prescient by the producers to pick out the absolute perfect team, who are completely devoted to both the plot of the book and the personality and the physical presence of the main character as I originally conceived him or her. Then, author excitement steadily building, hopes flourishing, Hollywood box office success dreams firing off like firecrackers on the Glorious 4th, the director shouts “Action!” cameras roll and…

Thud!

You know what occurs next:

Wait a second! Hey, what the hell? Where’s my book? Who are these odd people saying these strange things that have little or nothing to do with what I had in mind?

What just happened?

Sigh.

Here’s the deal with books into movies: Somewhere between optioning the material, investing in a screenwriter, hiring a director, cinematographer and a bevy of talented performers, and spending a whole lot of money – all the solid reasons for thinking the book would make a good movie get lost in the proverbial shuffle. In the process of dealing with all these disparate entities and personalities (all movies are a well-known series of compromises) the essence of the book gets, well, compromised. And there’s...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at John Katzenbach's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: Red 1-2-3.

--Marshal Zeringue