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Who Will Fill Paul Newman's Shoes as Lew Archer in the Film Version of Ross MacDonald's The Galton Case?
UPDATE: 3/8/12
I first posted about the movie based on The Galton Case book back at the end of October! Now Warner Brothers and Silver Pictures have finally hired a writer!
Peter Landesman who, according to Deadline, is a New York Times Magazine foreign correspondent, most recently scripted The Mission for Warner Bros. That film is about Operation Jaque, a daring rescue of 15 captives that included former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt from FARC militants who moved the hostages around in the Colombian jungles some of them being held as long as 15 years. That film has David O Russell circling as director, with Brad Pitt being courted to star. Landesman also scripted a movie based on former FBI #2 man Mark Felt, who admitted he was the “Deep Throat” who helped Woodward and Bernstein crack the Watergate conspiracy and end Richard Nixon’s presidency. That project is at Universal with Playtone producing. My note: Playtone is Tom Hanks company. I wonder if he intends to play a role in that film?
On The Galton Case, Joel Silver will produce and Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will be executive producers. Silver will partner with Random House Films on the movie, and RHF head Peter Gethers is exec producing with series rights holder Stephen White. Archer is a private eye who cracked dangerous cases in Southern California in the 1950s and 60s.
I'm excited to post good news for fans of Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series of books!
You may remember that Paul Newman played Archer in the Warner Bros movies Harper (1966), based on The Moving Target and The Drowning Pool (1975). They actually changed the character's name to Lew Harper; I can never understand why but apparently the 'rights' to certain names come at too high a cost, so they just go with a sound alike. Not sure if that's what happened here; they used the name Archer in a tv movie about the detective with Brian Keith as the p.i.. Call me confused!
I first posted about the movie based on The Galton Case book back at the end of October! Now Warner Brothers and Silver Pictures have finally hired a writer!
Peter Landesman who, according to Deadline, is a New York Times Magazine foreign correspondent, most recently scripted The Mission for Warner Bros. That film is about Operation Jaque, a daring rescue of 15 captives that included former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt from FARC militants who moved the hostages around in the Colombian jungles some of them being held as long as 15 years. That film has David O Russell circling as director, with Brad Pitt being courted to star. Landesman also scripted a movie based on former FBI #2 man Mark Felt, who admitted he was the “Deep Throat” who helped Woodward and Bernstein crack the Watergate conspiracy and end Richard Nixon’s presidency. That project is at Universal with Playtone producing. My note: Playtone is Tom Hanks company. I wonder if he intends to play a role in that film?
On The Galton Case, Joel Silver will produce and Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will be executive producers. Silver will partner with Random House Films on the movie, and RHF head Peter Gethers is exec producing with series rights holder Stephen White. Archer is a private eye who cracked dangerous cases in Southern California in the 1950s and 60s.
I'm excited to post good news for fans of Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series of books!
Variety is reporting today that Warner Bros has aquired the rights to the Lew Archer series of books; that they plan to launch a francise - movie lingo for make a whole slew of 'em - and they're going to start with The Galton Case. Madonald fans know that was the 8th book in the series about the L.A. based private ; this particular case has him tracking down "the lost heir to the Galton fortune"
Joel Silver wil produce, Silver is known for being big and brash, flashy and flamboyant, and pretty darn successful. His humongous list of credits include the current Sherlock Holmes films, Die Hard, The Matrix, as well as The Tales from the Crypt television show (which I worked on as as assistant production coordinator for a season!).You may remember that Paul Newman played Archer in the Warner Bros movies Harper (1966), based on The Moving Target and The Drowning Pool (1975). They actually changed the character's name to Lew Harper; I can never understand why but apparently the 'rights' to certain names come at too high a cost, so they just go with a sound alike. Not sure if that's what happened here; they used the name Archer in a tv movie about the detective with Brian Keith as the p.i.. Call me confused!
Anyway, I'm excited to think about who they will cast to fill those shoes of Newman's! He had to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, star of his day. And the speculation has already begun with one comment suggesting Iain Glenn from the hit HBO show Game of Thrones. I haven't been watching so I don't have a clue but it's clearly a HUGE role - especially with more films to come - so they'll no doubt be doing some serious looking. In The Doomsters, Archer is revealed to be 6'2" with blue eyes - well Paul Newman at least had the latter. Which makes me think of Ryan Gosling who is both 6'2" and has beautiful, beautiful blue eyes. And since they haven't even hired a writer yet, that gives him another year or so to mellow and mature into full leading man status - if he isn't already there.
By the way, not everyone is happy with Joel Silver as producer. An "Addie DeWitt" posted on Deadline.com:
White holds the rights to the material and will act as one of the film's executive producers. Not sure why DeWitt has a grudge against Silver; sounds like a disgruntled writer but if that's the case he/she is using a pseudonym; I can't find any info relating to that name at all!