Michael Connelly talks about visiting Lincoln Lawyer set

As I revealed last week, one of the biggest authors in the contemporary crime fiction world will be visiting New Zealand soon, with news breaking that Michael Connelly will be here on 24 May, for a 'one night only' feature event in central Auckland. The event will be tied in to the film adaptation of his book THE LINCOLN LAWYER. More details to come.

I spoke to Michael Connelly about the upcoming film in our interview for the Weekend Herald last year (at the time of the release of THE REVERSAL). It was a terrific interview overall - 90mins of chatting about crime writing and more. Unfortunately of course only about 10-20 % of such an interview can ever make it into the eventual article, because of space constraints. You can read my Weekend Herald feature article here, and some further comments from Connelly about the film adaptation, here.

Now Connelly has written his own very interesting article for the March issue of LA Times Magazine about witnessing the making of the film adaptation, his visits to the film set, his thoughts on the upcoming film, and the inspiration behind the original books. Here's an excerpt:

"I came by myself to watch the filming of what I think is the most important moment in the book and the film—when all of lawyer Mickey Haller’s machinations and scheming come together. It’s a set piece with a lot of choreography of main characters and background movement. In the novel, momentum is the key component. It is so important it’s even announced on the cover with a shot of a blurred Lincoln Town Car speeding by. As I watch the first three takes of the scene, I see that the director, screenwriter, actors and everybody have gotten the point. A momentum builds, an undeniable energy that seems to explode in a stare-down between lawyer and client—McConaughey and Ryan Phillippe. As I watch, I am absolutely ecstatic."

You can read the whole article (recommended) here. The film is released in the United States on 18 March, and elsewhere in the English-speaking world in the coming weeks. I for one am very much looking forward to it - talking to Connelly last year it was clear he was stoked with how this adaptation had gone. He of course has had another novel. BLOOD WORK, adapted for film before - and I definitely got the sense he thinks the screenwriters/actors/director/crew have 'got' THE LINCOLN LAWYER a lot more than their counterparts did with BLOOD WORK (which was a good book, and just an okay/mediocre film, in my opinion).

Have you read THE LINCOLN LAWYER? Will you watch the film (see trailer here)? What do you think? Do you like watching film/TV adaptations of crime novels? What are some of your favourite and least favourite adaptations?