Reply to Topic
I must say I love the work of Dennis Lehane, both his superbly written mystery/neo-noir novels (13 up to now) and his writing for television, including his penning several episodes of two landmark TV series (The Wire & Boardwalk Empire), writing the teleplays for two miniseries of Stephen King's novels Mr Mercedes (2017) & The Outsider (2020), and most recently, creating/writing and producing his own acclaimed 2022 miniseries, Black Bird.
In terms of Dennis Lehane's thirteen novels, 5 of them have been turned into theatrically released movies so far. They are:
2003 - Mystic River - The first Dennis Lehane novel to be turned into film, and still my personal favourite Lehane adaptation (screenplay by Brian Helgeland). A haunting modern tragedy, with powerhouse acting by the entire ensemble cast including Sean Penn (who won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance), Tim Robbins (who won for Best Supporting Actor), Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Emmy Rossum, Laura Linney & Marcia Gay Harden. Directed with his usual no-fuss mastery of the craft by Clint Eastwood...and Clint also wrote the film's beautiful, elegiac music score.
2007 - Gone Baby Gone - Ben Affleck's directorial debut, he also wrote the screenplay, this being the first of his two ventures into adapting Lehane for cinema. Another complex and memorable urban tale, portrayed by another great ensemble cast, including Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Michelle Monaghan, Amy Ryan, & Ben Affleck's younger brother, Casey.
2010 - Shutter Island - This dark, psychological thriller was the fourth of the six collaborations to date between Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese (I'm including the highly anticipated and yet to be released Killers of the Flower Moon in that count of six). Brilliance is what moviegoers have come to expect during the past 2 decades from the DiCaprio-Scorsese teaming, and in Shutter Island, brilliance is again what we get - and I can certainly understand why many might place this at No 1 in terms of Lehane adaptations to the big screen.
2014 - The Drop - Originally a Dennis Lehane short story entitled 'Animal Rescue', included as part of the 'Boston Noir' collection, the author adapted the story into a screenplay and at the same time, turned it into a novel. The ever-charismatic Tom Hardy and the much-missed James Gandolfini (in his final screen role before his untimely death), play off each other superbly, and I love the final 'twist in the tale'.
2016 - Live By Night - Ben Affleck's second screen adaptation of a Lehane novel. This time, Affleck not only wrote the screenplay and directed, but also starred in the movie. This one got something of a hard time from many critics, but I rather like its hybrid of gangster movie + film noir (two of my favourite genres).
So I'm a fan of all 5 of the Lehane cinematic adaptations to date, but to give my specific order of preference it would be (with a close call between 1 & 2):
1. Mystic River
2. Shutter Island
3. Gone Baby Gone
4. The Drop
5. Live By Night
How about you ?
In terms of Dennis Lehane's thirteen novels, 5 of them have been turned into theatrically released movies so far. They are:
2003 - Mystic River - The first Dennis Lehane novel to be turned into film, and still my personal favourite Lehane adaptation (screenplay by Brian Helgeland). A haunting modern tragedy, with powerhouse acting by the entire ensemble cast including Sean Penn (who won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance), Tim Robbins (who won for Best Supporting Actor), Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Emmy Rossum, Laura Linney & Marcia Gay Harden. Directed with his usual no-fuss mastery of the craft by Clint Eastwood...and Clint also wrote the film's beautiful, elegiac music score.
2007 - Gone Baby Gone - Ben Affleck's directorial debut, he also wrote the screenplay, this being the first of his two ventures into adapting Lehane for cinema. Another complex and memorable urban tale, portrayed by another great ensemble cast, including Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Michelle Monaghan, Amy Ryan, & Ben Affleck's younger brother, Casey.
2010 - Shutter Island - This dark, psychological thriller was the fourth of the six collaborations to date between Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese (I'm including the highly anticipated and yet to be released Killers of the Flower Moon in that count of six). Brilliance is what moviegoers have come to expect during the past 2 decades from the DiCaprio-Scorsese teaming, and in Shutter Island, brilliance is again what we get - and I can certainly understand why many might place this at No 1 in terms of Lehane adaptations to the big screen.
2014 - The Drop - Originally a Dennis Lehane short story entitled 'Animal Rescue', included as part of the 'Boston Noir' collection, the author adapted the story into a screenplay and at the same time, turned it into a novel. The ever-charismatic Tom Hardy and the much-missed James Gandolfini (in his final screen role before his untimely death), play off each other superbly, and I love the final 'twist in the tale'.
2016 - Live By Night - Ben Affleck's second screen adaptation of a Lehane novel. This time, Affleck not only wrote the screenplay and directed, but also starred in the movie. This one got something of a hard time from many critics, but I rather like its hybrid of gangster movie + film noir (two of my favourite genres).
So I'm a fan of all 5 of the Lehane cinematic adaptations to date, but to give my specific order of preference it would be (with a close call between 1 & 2):
1. Mystic River
2. Shutter Island
3. Gone Baby Gone
4. The Drop
5. Live By Night
How about you ?
As for the other four ...