Gary Fleder takes on THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

21 novels were written by prolific crime/thriller writer John MacDonald in the 60's and 70's based on the character of Travis McGee, a free living bachelor and often reluctant hero who independently living in Florida recovers property and money for clients taking half the fee for return. Now comes word from The Hollywood Reporter that 20th Century Fox are eyeing the novels as a potential franchise and have hired frequent crime director Gary Fleder (Runaway Jury, Kiss the Girls) to helm the first movie based on the novel The Deep Blue Good-By.

"Good-by" centers on McGee's efforts to track down a treasure that a solider escaped with and hid after World War II.

Another interesting note is that all the books in the series have a colour in the title. According to WIKI, this novel written in 1964 is thought to be the best starting point for new readers to the series and Fox must agree. The character is said to evolve and grow older through his two decades of print. MacDonald was also the writer of the novel Cape Fear, which has already been turned into two awesome movies... one with Robert Mitchum and the other with Robert De Niro for Marty Scorsese. This project sounds interesting and Fleder has a good knack for taking decent crime material and translating a difficult genre into interesting movies. I really enjoyed Runaway Jury and both Kiss the Girls and Don't Say A Word were good enough for me to be satisfied with the money I had put down to see them.