A few weeks ago, I sat down with a huge grin on my face to write about one of my favorite books of the past few years – Glen David Gold’s “Carter Beats The Devil” – for Print to Projector. It’s a brilliant novel, managing to be suspenseful, funny, and damned entertaining. Plus, there are pirates and magic, and it’s written by someone who has clearly learned far too much about his subject and has chosen to spin that knowledge into a fantastic fictional tapestry (with cameos from real life).
That piece led to an email from the author, which led to a response, which led to the question of what’s going on with the book now.
This all led to Gold emailing me earlier in the evening with great news:
Warner Brothers just optioned Carter this afternoon. And yes, that’s something you can talk about. Let’s keep fingers crossed.
Considering how badly this book needs to be adapted, the rich possibilities of what could end up on screen, and, yes, the solid work that Warners has churned out by giving filmmakers a large amount of freedom – this news couldn’t be better.
And of course I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. I want to see Carter The Great brought to life on the big screen.
I also take the news with a grain of salt. The work has been optioned before, and just because it got bought doesn’t mean it gets made. There’s a long road from here, but at least the road is rising to meet Carter.
Now, hopefully, we’ll get to see how foolish my casting choices really were.
What do you think? Do you wanna see a magic trick?
