Provinces of Night

Every once in a while the stars align and somebody deserving’s ship comes into La-La-Land. This year it’s happened at least twice. William Gay’s stories are headed for the talkies – they shitfire! – and if them whose hands hold the rights to those fictions can bring anything resembling the books to the screen well they’s gonna be some awful potent pictures at the show. Scott Meeks makes his feature debut with That Evening Sun, adapted from the titular story in Gay’s collection I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, starring Hal Holbrook and producers Ray McKinnon, (Deadwood) and Walton Goggins, (The Shield). Next up is Provinces of Night with an ensemble cast including Val Kilmer, Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam and screenwriter W. Earl Brown, (Dan Dority from Deadwood and Mr. “Franks & Beans” from There’s Something About Mary… seriously… check it out… told ya so). Twilight is in pre-production and while the story is simpler than PON it is uh… how to say it… a little perverse? Anyway I’m eager to see how that comically macabre tale holds up against the money people. That covers most of Gay’s novels except for The Long Home, (which I hear has a killer script floating around already) and The Lost Country which hits bookstores November first.

Far from covering his impressive body of work, but making it a damn good year to be Ken Bruen, there are at least three KB films coming down the pike. First (filmed) is Colin Farrell, Keira Knightly and Ray Winstone in London Boulevard which also makes the directorial debut of scribe William Monahan, (The Departed), followed by Jason Statham as Sgt. Brant in Blitz and a television series called Jack Taylor after well Jack Taylor from the uh Jack Taylor novels – The Guards, being the first. British Actor Dominic West looking to shake the image of alcoholic trainwreck police detective Jimmy McNulty, (The Wire) will play alcoholic trainwreck private detective er Jack Taylor. Which is great news for Bruen, for West and the world, but frankly it strikes me they’ve got it backward. The Taylor novels seem ideal for films and the Brant titles could make a kick ass ensemble television series. Also possibly coming from Bruencysktan, Once Were Cops and Tower – coauthored with Reed Farrell Coleman and edited by Allan Guthrie whose Two-Way Split may be getting a filmic treatment of its own soon.

Or maybe not.

Seems nearly a year ago I blogged about Jude Law playing Brant in Blitz. Statham’s a bit easier to picture right?