Detective Scudder Returns To Big Screens in ‘A Walk Among The Tombstones’

Posted by Darrenon 30. 06. 2011in Uncategorized

The last time novelist Lawrence Block’s character of ex-cop and former alcoholic Matthew Scudder appeared onscreen was in the 1986 flop ’8 Million Ways To Die’. It has taken this long for said character to resurface in a new film, ‘A Walk Among The Tombstones’.

Deadline reports:

Cross Creek Pictures has stepped up to finance A Walk Among the Tombstones, an adaptation of the Lawrence Block novel that seemed to have been put to rest more than a decade ago. DJ Caruso is in discussions to direct a script by Scott Frank. It is one of two pictures Caruso is considering for his next film. The other is Preacher, the John August-scripted film for Sony Pictures and producer Neal Moritz.

A brief reminder on the previous film. Jeff Bridges played Scudder; it was the first onscreen appearance of Andy Garcia, that film was co-written by Oliver Stone and it was Hal Ashby’s last film. It strayed leaps and bounds from the book, although it kept in the character’s struggles with the bottle and going to AA. And it tanked, despite being a small guilty pleasure of sorts. But I want to stress something here. If I hadn’t told you that, you probably would have not have known. Maybe you wouldn’t care. ‘Tombstones’ had almost gotten off the ground many years ago, but the plug was pulled. But this is not a reboot, remake or retread. It isn’t a sequel or prequel. It’s a whole new ballgame. Unless they cast Jeff Bridges.

Do we have any Larry Block/Matthew Scudder novel fans out there? Who should play Scudder? Will those of you unfamiliar with the mystery novels want to see a film whose character’s name is Scudder?
Chime in, Int’l friends.