Selling the rights to your novel is always a crapshoot. Few are actually made into a film and fewer still avoid being total crapfests.

So when I heard that Aaron Stoddard was handling writing duties for Marcus Sakey’s The Blade Itself, I felt a pang of hope. Stoddard worked with Ben Affleck on the screenplay for Dennis Lehane’ Gone Baby Gone, and did a fine job.

At Murder in Muskego, I spent some time chatting (and drinking) with Marcus and asked him for his thoughts on the screenplay.

“It’s interesting reading an adaptation of your own work. There are things you can do in books that you can’t do in movies, which means that the screenwriter needs to have a distinct vision, yet not be too slavishly tied to the book. Aaron Stockard knocked the script for Blade out of the park. He didn’t just translate it from one medium to another; he added a lot of sophistication along the way. I hope things move forward, because I would sure love to see this film.”

Obviously a completed script is only part of the journey, but it is a good start. I also would love to see this interesting story make it to the silver screen. Currently the production company (Live Planet) is in the process of picking a director.