William Shakespeare? Who dat? If you want to be somebody these days, you’ve got to adapt Dennis Lehane. Since Clint Eastwood popularized his stuff with Mystic River, the author’s material has become fodder for Scorsese and given Ben Affleck a bridge back to respectability.
Now Sam Raimi is eying one of his books. Columbia picked up the forthcoming novel The Given Day for Raimi to develop as a directorial project. Wonder how this fits in as bait or trade-off for Spider-Man 4? ‘We give you critic bait, you give us Venom movie.’ Nah.
This novel is a change of pace from the other Lehane flicks, though, and it could make interesting material for Raimi. Set in Boston (of course) in 1919, it concerns returning WWI soldiers, Spanish flu and a police strike that had wide-ranging repercussions throughout the city. Lehane’s novel focuses on a pair of officers in the midst of the turmoil. Given his tangental relationship to Scorsese (and without having a galley proof around to peruse) the concoction brings to mind a mix between The Departed and Gangs of New York. Baseless, I’m sure. But maybe Raimi can manage to work in the Dropkick Murphys song about the strike. Their shit was killer in Scorsese’s hands.