In the Long Time Coming department, news has arrived concerning a film adaptation of Dean Koontz‘ bestselling thriller The Husband. Director Ole Bornedal, best known for the morgue thriller Nightwatch (both a foreign version and domestic remake) has been signed to make the film for Focus Features. Variety reports that Bornedal will rewrite the existing script before beginning production.
The Husband is a fast-paced suspense tale about a gardener whose wife is kidnapped. The official synopsis from Koontz’ website is here:
We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he’s standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare. Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch’s wife and he’s named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn’t care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He’s confident that Mitch will find a way. If he loves his wife enough. . . Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He’s got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he’ll pay a lot more. He’ll pay anything.”
I’m a fan of much of Koontz’ work, and this is hopefully a good sign of things to come. I opened this post by saying this news is a long time in coming because he has several incredibly suspenseful and cinematic novels that could easily become equally engaging films in the right hands. Velocity, The Good Guy, Dark Rivers of the Heart… all fast and fascinating non-supernatural thrillers that should translate to the screen fairly seamlessly. Like Harlan Coben’s novels, they can be densely plotted with multiple characters and plot twists, but the recent French adaptation of Coben’s Tell No One proves they can make great movies.
Koontz hasn’t had much success with Hollywood translations… his most high profile film was the mildly entertaining Ben Affleck headlined Phantoms. He’s had more success in the television medium with multiple works adapted for TV movies and mini-series including the excellent Intensity starring John C. McGinley. Other Koontz films currently in development include The Taking, based on his shitty and obvious Christian propeganda novel, and Odd Thomas which is one of my favorites.
Are you a Koontz reader? Can The Husband make a good film? Any Favorites?
