April 14
About a year ago, I reported that there was renewed talk of Hollywood making a movie of my favourite crime novel, In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, prompting a small debate about who migh step into Alec Baldwin's shoes to play Dave Robicheaux. (Baldwin played Dave in the 1996 adaptation of Heaven's Prisoners).
I don't suppose I'd given it a moment's thought until yesterday when a little surfing revealed that production was scheduled to start this month and that Tommy Lee Jones is to play the ragin' Cajun. (The same site also reveals that Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are, heaven help us all, to reprise their Dan Brown duet in an adaptation of Angels and Demons.)
I've never been the biggest fan of Jones, but after some consideration, I like the idea of him as Dave a lot and can't wait to see how he handles this challenge. There isn't a whole lot of other news about casting, but what there is can be seen on this message thread at JLB's own site.
The film is slated for a December release in the US, which means those of us waiting impatiently here in the UK will likely have to wait until early 2008 to see it.
Donna Leon does the rounds
From the "you learn something new everyday" department: Donna Leon, author of the gastronomically excellent Brunetti series of novels set in Venice, is actually American.
That little nugget comes courtesy of Clive James' recent round-up of European crime fiction from The New Yorker, which I found over at the rap sheet. James' writing is as entertaining and as enlightening as ever, and it's well worth a click through to read it.
Donna Leon, who has just published Brunetti no. 16, Suffer the Little Children, was also interviewed by Mark Lawson on Tuesday evening's edition of Front Row on BBC Radio 4, which you can listen to by clicking on Tuesday in the previous editions slot on the right hand nav bar at the site. It may well appear in the podcast soon also, which would be handy.
Bad time for a good book
There's a time and a place for getting utterly hooked on a great book, and in bed at 10.30pm when the alarm is set for a 5.45am start isn't it. But so it was with Peter James' Not Dead Enough, which just caught fire last night as I broke through the 100 page barrier. 150 pages and 90 minutes later I forced myself to put it down. But an early night beckons tonight and I suspect a review will be fortcoming soon. It's a ripper.
Reading
Not Dead Enough by Peter James, p265