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DIP
Posted in Writing on 04/16/2013 01:49 pm by SimonDIP, the film I wrote for the Channel 4 Coming Up season
DIP Part 2:
From the website, ‘my book the movie’
Posted in Writing on 04/16/2013 01:19 pm by SimonSimon Lewis’s “Border Run”
Simon Lewis studied Art at Goldmiths College in London, then worked as a travel writer in Asia. He researched the Rough Guides to China, Beijing, and Shanghai as well as writing for newspapers and magazines.
His first novel Go (1999), a travel thriller about backpackers, was written in a village in the Himalayas. His second novel, Bad Traffic (2008), is a crime thriller about people smugglers, featuring Chinese policeman Inspector Jian.
Here Lewis dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest novel, Border Run:
If Border Run was to be filmed, it would be a contained thriller – all the action takes place over a single day, in (pretty much) one location – the remote forest that lies on the border between Burma and China. As well as bringing to life some dramatic talky scenes, the actors would be required to do a lot of tricky physical work – jumping over waterfalls, fighting with knives, and hunting one another with homemade crossbows.
For my lead, naive young British backpacker Will, I would want Robert Sheehan. I was lucky enough to watch him play another part I wrote for him – that of a grieving pickpocket in the TV drama Dip – and I think he is a superb actor. He brings a mesmerising mix of angst and strength to the role. It helps that he’s beautiful too, in a soulful way.
I think it is a challenging part: over the course of one day he has to turn from one of life’s natural witnesses – rather self conscious, hiding behind his camera – into a ruthless hunter who must drop the trappings of civilisation and turn on his best friend, in order to do what he thinks is right.
For the second backpacker, Jake, I would cast Dominic Cooper – sportier and more extrovert, with more classical good looks. Something more of a jack- the-lad quality about him. Again, his role is a tough one: he has to be stripped of his conceited confidence and descend into paranoia and desperation.
The third character – the seedy middle aged smuggler who acts as their guide – is psychopathic, middle aged and American – so would have to be played by whoever the new Dennis Hopper is – perhaps Nicolas Cage. Certainly a character actor who can bring some intensity and danger to the part. As the guide, he runs rings around his young charges, being icy, manipulative and fast talking – and, ultimately, unhinged and pretty scary. For an actor, it’s probably the best role; he gets a good death scene too…
Posted in Writing on 04/16/2013 01:37 am by Simon
Slinging up random writings every now and again.
MAN ON DESERT ISLAND NOT MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Harvey Becker, stranded on a deserted tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, is lucky to be alive, and his situation is not dire. The island has clean spring water, the trees are laden with fruit and coconuts, the weather is clement and the forest behind the beach offers plentiful material for construction. But Harry, sole survivor of flight KR594, has not built a firepit, latrine, or rudimentary shelter, or attempted to make a bow and arrow to hunt bush-pigs. He has not climbed the island’s sole hill or attempted to capture any of the slow and flightless guinea fowl. He just mopes about on the beach all day, a palm leaf draped over his head to keep the sun off, looking at the horizon and crying.
Harvey has not glanced at either the ‘Collected Works of William Shakespeare,’ or the Bible, nor has he played the Stone Roses album on the clockwork record player that was washed up beside him, despite it being his all time favourite record.
ASSASSIN HAS OFF-DAY
Professional killer Alex-Khakim Sultygov reports that though he is proud of his reputation for ruthless efficiency, he has to admit that today he is not on top form. After sleeping through his alarm, he burnt his toast, and spent a fretful twenty minutes looking for his car keys. Driving to work in his Audi A4 Avant, Alex almost side-swiped a meandering pedestrian. While crouched inside a rooftop ventilator with the stock of a M24 SOCOM sniper rifle pressed against his shoulder, Alex began to feel headachey and bloated. Probing a niggly tooth with his tongue, he realised that for the third week running he had forgotten to make a dentists appointment. He almost failed to notice copper magnate Dimitri Baskalnikov arrive at the marina. Taking aim through his 10times Unertl scope, Alex reflected that it was turning into one of those days.
DODECAHEDRON TO BE REBRANDED
‘The twelve faced polyhedron is hip, hot and happening,’ declared a representative of PR Agency Farken and List. ‘And to reflect that our client would like to dump his dorky name. Why should square, circle and triangle be the only shapes with cool, catchy monikers? The dodecahedron would from now on like to be known as the Snoogle.’ The pentagonal antiprism, snub disphenoid and triakis teterahedron are reported to be watching developments with interest.
three quick book reviews
Posted in Writing on 04/15/2013 05:25 am by SimonURBAN NOIR NIGHTMARES – THREE REVIEWS
Miami Blues by Charles Willeford
Willeford wrote four great books featuring put-upon cop with bad teeth, Hoke Moseley. This was the first. They’re not police procedurals though, more like modern westerns. Here, Hoke is pitted against of one of fiction’s great outlaws, Freddie Frenger. Freddie’s a psychopath fresh from prison who flies into Miami with no idea but to go on a spree until he’s caught again. In chapter one he kills a Hare Krishna at the airport for no good reason – the guy just annoyed him – and this pointless murder sets Hoke on his trail… kind of… the plot meanders all over the place. But it’s great fun to follow these two figures who seem locked together: the cop who’s hemmed in by the rules and the psycho who doesn’t have any. Freddie is deadly, yet also oddly guiless and honest; Hoke is unlucky and jaded. And both are outsiders, navigating the gaudy glories of Miami the only ways they know how.
Twisted City by Jason Starr
David Miller is an ordinary New York citizen hustling through just another day, though he’s having a tough time at the moment, what with hating his job as a financial journalist, thinking his girlfriend is psycho and dealing with the death of his sister. But after his wallet is stolen in a bar, he descends into hell with indecent haste. He quickly finds himself negotiating with a junkie hooker for the wallet’s return, then just a few hours later he’s involved with murder and blackmail. Starr is the master of modern noir, and this is a brilliantly crafted, bleak and blackly comic tale. The real strength here, as with Starr’s noir master Jim Thompson, is the way he draws you into the mind of a compromised, amoral character. David narrates increasingly nightmarish events in a deadpan voice which underplays the horrors of his situation – and starts to seem oddly blank, even inappropriate. Only when other characters start telling him how weird he is, and he starts talking to his dead sister, do we realise that he’s as warped as the low life he is dealing with.
London Boulevard by Ken Bruen
Bruen is known for violent dramas told in a terse and direct style, and this is his best. Just out of prison for an assault he doesn’t even remember, Mitchell is determined to make a new life for himself in London. Old friends try to coax him into working as a loan shark’s enforcer, but he spurns them and gets himself set up as the handyman to an eccentric old actress with a strange butler. This, of course, should sound familiar: the story is a gritty noir reimagining of Sunset Boulevard, but Bruen takes the action out of the mansion and onto some mean streets. Mitchell is no hero but you can’t help rooting for this wisecracking cynic, because at least his heart is in the right place. His attempts to go straight come to naught of course, and when mayhem threatens to invade the actresses home, the bodies are soon piling up.