It seems every couple of years that producers revisit the idea of bring John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee back to the big screen.
Now talks have started once more.
Gary Fleder is in final negotiations to direct The Deep Blue Goodbye.
Fleder made his directorial debut in 1995 with Things to do in Denver when you are dead. The film got mixed reviews, but did establish a cult following.
Fleder followed that up by bringing James Patterson’s Alex Cross to the big screen in Kiss the Girls.
His last film was John Grisham’s Runaway Jury in 2003, but he has spent the last couple of years as executive producer for the ABC series October Road.
Personally, I have not seen anything by Felder that makes me exactly giddy at the thought of him tackling Travis McGee, but I think a lot will depend on the quality of the screenplay (no writer has been attached as of yet).
Rumors are bouncing around that Fox is looking at Robert Downey Jr. to play Travis McGee. RDJ is a very hot commodity in Hollywood these days with the success of Iron Man.A couple of years ago, Harrison Ford’s name had been bandied about a couple of years ago, with nothing coming of it.
The novel was published in 1964, so I am guessing they will update things and have it set in the here and now.
Travis McGee hit the silver screen in 1970 when Rod Taylor played him in Darker than Amber. In 1983, a telefilm (based on The Empty Copper Sea) was made, for ABC, with Sam Elliot as McGee.
I can remember when I was given a copy of The Deep Blue Goodbye. I was in sixth grade and the idea of a tough guy that lived on a houseboat, helping lovely ladies in distress was the coolest thing ever.
My advice, and I've got an eye for this movie thing: leave it in the era from whence it hails.