The Dark Fields

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Society and Class. For Gatsby, just as Daisy is visible through the green light, but in reality out of reach, so is the old money contingent of wealthy Long Island society. No matter how high Gatsby rises and how rich he gets, he still can't break through that final barrier—and he can never quite grasp the green light. JRM: You say that big advances can be dangerous. Most writers hope for those—so what are the dangers? Ebert, Roger (March 16, 2011). "He knew everything, but forgot most of it". Chicago Sun-Times. RogerEbert.com.

I was very satisfied with the movie. In some respects it’s very faithful to the book, and in other respects it goes its own way. But you’d be foolish to expect a movie version to say exactly the same thing or make exactly the same point that you did in the book. ” As it turned out, the book was very Hollywood-friendly, and could be pitched in four words: Viagra for the brain. My subsequent two books, although similar in style and pacing, are much harder to pitch—at least in shorthand movie terms.”The book started as a sort of what-if proposal. Thinking of the performance-enhancing drugs in sports, I thought, what if there were a performance-enhancing drug for businessmen, lawyers, politicians even? It’s just that, if you sell it, unlike with novels, you’re almost certainly guaranteed the heartache of seeing your work twisted and changed out of all recognition, and multiple times. I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for that. The idea was cool. The book was well enough but undercooked. The film was better, even though likely financed/affected by pharma agenda. This leaves us with that rara avis case where the film is actually better than the book.

Unless you’re in the major leagues, your books generally don’t get advertised in a mainstream way. And suddenly I’m watching a tv spot for the Limitless movie, playing during the Super Bowl. And the movie definitely sends people out to bookstores.”And there were; I had many lunches where I was courted and pitched to within an inch of my life. There’s a motor in the book, and in Leslie’s script, that I think kept the project alive. And that went a long distance towards ensuring that it was going to get made into a movie one way or another. Decide whether Gatsby primarily treats Daisy as an object, or whether he does have a sense of her as a person and loves her for herself. Having said that, everyone I met was very nice and friendly. But that’s possibly because I posed no threat to anyone. I have heard some horror stories, stuff that would be nightmarish to be involved in but was extremely entertaining to hear about.

And what about The Paloma Stripe and Winterland, the two novels I’d written since? So my worldview at the time was quite negative and bleak. Alan Glynn: Up until early 2008, I was fairly miserable and losing hope of ever being published again. The Dark Fields was very well reviewed when it first came out, but it didn’t sell particularly well. JRM: I can see where it makes sense on the book side, if that’s what you mean; a bad book wouldn’t have been optioned, and a bad movie isn’t going to sell a lot of books, even good ones. JRM: So if you do want your book to be a movie—better in your opinion to prepare a book and a screenplay, rather than trying to make the book fit into some kind of Hollywood mold?I did read it and understand what I was signing, but I didn’t have anything to compare it with and was in no real position to question any of the details. As I say, I trust Antony, who now runs his own agency, Antony Harwood Ltd. I’ve been with him for nearly fifteen years, and have never once had a problem or disagreement with him.

JRM: It’s tough. I spoke with [ Limitless screenwriter/producer] Leslie just the other day, and one of the things she pointed out was that, because of the economy and the high cost of turning pitches into screenplays, there’s not a whole lot of interest in “development” anymore.Alan Glynn: I was very satisfied indeed. In some respects it’s very faithful to the book, and in other respects it goes its own way. Which is fine.