After the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick planned to bring to the screen his long cherished Napoleon Bonaparte project. The meticulous approach he had taken to its three year research had consumed every part of his life. In his house he kept a cabinet stashed full of 25,000 library cards: each detailed with the daily activities of Napoleon from birth to death. In addition to this were cards pertaining to what every single one of the fifty other characters were doing on any given day.

“Cataloged and indexed, on IBM aperture cards. The retrieval system is based on subject classification, but a special visual signaling method allows cross indexing to any degree of complexity.”

Kubrick had in essence become a chronological historian of the entire French Revolution.

To further enhance this accuracy, Kubrick not only purchased the rights to the Napoleon biography by Professor Felix Markham, he also hired the Oxford scholar as an historical advisor for the film. Having spent over thirty years studying Napoleonic history, Markham added considerable weight to the project, and enabled Kubrick to complete the final draft of the 148 page screenplay in 1969. The script covered the full life span of the enigmatic leader and the reasons for his downfall.

Scheduled to shoot across Italy, and what used to be Yugoslavia, over 150 days, the three hour epic would need to hire and costume thousands of extras in addition to the main fifty characters. Both countries agreed to make the uniforms at the reduced cost of $40 dollars per extra, compared to the going rate of $200. But in an effort to reduce production costs further, Kubrick scouted, and eventually found an alternative.

“A New York firm can produce a printed uniform on a Dupont, fireproof, drip-dry, paper fabric, which has a 300-pound breaking strength, even when wet, for $1-$4 depending on the detailing. We have done film tests on the $4 uniform and, from a distance of 30 yards or further away, it looks marvelous. I should point out that renting uniforms for this film is not a viable proposition, because the numbers available are totally inadequate, and for a long, rough usage, it is cheaper to make them.”

Of paramount importance, as with all Kubrick films, was the casting. Kubrick had grown disillusioned with the rising salaries of actors, and feared their demands would cripple his production.

“I think sufficient proof must now exist that over-priced movie stars do little besides leaving an insufficient amount of money to make the film properly.”

To overcome this, Kubrick expressed a desire to cast unknowns, but he remained specific about the details of the main protagonist himself.

“I want an actor between 30-35 who has the good looks of the younger Napoleon and who can be aged and made-up for the middle-aged Napoleon. He should be able to convey the restless energy, the ruthlessness, and the inflexible will of Bonaparte, but, at the same time, the tremendous charm which every contemporary memorist attributes to him.”

The attention to detail also saw Kubrick devoting considerable time to finding shooting equipment that would help keep the budget under control.

“Research has been done in locating an extremely fast lens, which will cover a 70 mm format. This will allow shooting to continue on exterior locations beyond the normal hour where the light becomes photographically inadequate.”

However, despite commanding complete creative control over his previous projects, Kubrick could still not convince the money men to green-light the production. Especially after Rod Steiger’s Waterloo had become a box office turkey in the intervening years.

Frustrated at the impasse, Kubrick shoved the script back in a drawer, and went off to make A Clockwork Orange instead.

Napoleon was left to collect dust, leaving many to believe that maybe the script was not as good as had been initially reported.

However, a few years ago the script was discovered by an executive at United Artists. It was being stored in an old salt mine in Kansas: a place used by the studio to archive their projects. Upon reading it, the executive’s eyes widened. Based on the screenplay, he claims Napoleon would have rivalled Citizen Kane as the finest movie ever made. Strong words indeed.

Shortly after, the script found its way onto the internet. Downloading a copy became a frenzy of activity as film lovers became determined to read it for themselves. The Stanley Kubrick Estate soon removed almost all copies from the net. Although for those lucky enough to download it, they backed up the previous claims.

Now you can judge for yourselves:

Napoleon by Stanley Kubrick

This rare online version of the screenplay will eventually be pulled from the public domain, as so many of its predecessors have been. Therefore, it is wise to savour it now before all that survives of Kubrick’s endeavours are legend and hearsay.

“The lasting and ultimately most important reputation of a film is not based on reviews, but on what, if anything, people say about it over the years, and on how much affection for it they have.”

Creative Differences, a production company in the US, has now secured the rights from MGM and The Stanley Kubrick Estate to make a documentary on Kubrick’s obsession to bring Napoleon to the screen. It will even be produced by Kubrick’s long time Producer Jan Harlan.

The thread of their film, will be the same question which haunts Kubrick aficionados across the world: did the studio executives deprive the movie industry of its finest ever film? With Kubrick’s unfortunate death this, and other questions about the project will go unanswered.

Stanley Kubrick did leave audiences with a tremendous back catalogue which will endure for future generations. But to the detriment of cinema, and perhaps history itself, his greatest masterpiece remains unfilmed.

Edwin Stanton Porter was born in 1870 in Pennsylvania. From an early age he developed a fascination for machinery. Working in several jobs often at the same time, he turned down a job in the automobile industry to work for Vitascope in 1895. A year later their projector became the first to screen a film to an audience.

During his time at Vitascope, Porter was determined to improve the projector itself through his engineering skills, to produce a more professional film. It resulted in his revolutionary projector: The Beadnell. Unfortunately a factory fire halted production, so Porter turned his attention to making films instead.

Life of an American Fireman was released in 1903 to an astonished film community.

It was the first time in American history that editing had been used to create drama between several scenes.

Porter realized he had discovered the potential of this new fad. Whereas others had tried to create a spectacle to wow an audience, Porter was convinced that only by adding drama to film could it have any sustainable future as an entertainment medium. With this in mind, at the mere age of 33, Edwin S. Porter revolutionised film with:

The Great Train Robbery

In 1903 twelve minutes of film flickered in the dark to a wide-eyed audience. Everyone stared in disbelief. Screams spread when a train came hurtling towards their faces. The dramatic story gripped the masses with its ground breaking jump-cutting technique. At the end an outlaw played by George Barnes, faces the screen head on and shoots the audience, who invariably ducked, leaving the screen in a blaze of gun smoke. It sent shock waves across the world. Cinema would never be the same again.

The Great Train Robbery only has 14 scenes: each told with a single shot. But the way it cut between the shots was a revelation. For the first time audiences experienced two separate events occurring simultaneously. It was the first of many innovative techniques that the film brought to the screen: location shooting, cross-cut editing, a moving camera, and even stunt work. Today’s equivalent would be to pluck indigenous people from a forest and show them a 3D movie. What Porter cut together with his $150 dollar budget, quite literally blew people’s minds.

The story itself was based on the true event of Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall Gang robbing a train in Wyoming on August 29th 1900. Porter adapted this narrative into one of multiple plot lines which hurtled along faster than the train itself. Audiences never tired of seeing it. As such it was a commercial sensation. No longer were one reelers considered light entertainment not to be taken seriously. Had Porter not made this one reeler who knows what would have happened to the little marquee frivolity of film. Maybe it would have faded away as the fad it was reported to be. But after The Great Train Robbery, it was widely acknowledged that injecting drama into film would satisfy audience needs, and result in endless financial gain. In short, and with a short, Edwin S. Porter gave birth to an industry.

He followed this success with a string of innovative films. But with Rescued From An Eagle’s Nest in 1908 he passed the baton onto the next generation, by casting none other than D.W. Griffith in the leading role.

In the same year that Griffith released The Birth Of A Nation (1915), Porter left film directing altogether at just 45, and went back to his true love of the machines that make films and project them.

The Key Films Of Edwin S. Porter

1915 Lydia Gilmore 

1915 The Prince and the Pauper

1915 Zaza

1915 Sold

1915 The Eternal City

1915 Niobe

1915 The Morals of Marcus

1914 The Crucible

1914 Such a Little Queen

1914 Tess of the Storm Country

1914 A Good Little Devil

1914 Hearts Adrift

1913 The Count of Monte Cristo

1913 In the Bishop’s Carriage

1913 The Prisoner of Zenda

1912 The Convict’s Parole

1911 Lost Illusions

1911 The White Redman

1910 Toymaker, the Doll and the Devil

1910 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

1910 For Her Sister’s Sake

1910 Luck of Roaring Camp

1910 The Engineer’s Romance

1909 The House of Cards

1908 Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest

1907 The Life of an American Cowboy

1907 The ‘Teddy’ Bears

1907 Laughing Gas

1906 Dream of a Rarebit Fiend

1906 Three American Beauties

1905 The Little Train Robbery

1905 The Kleptomaniac

1905 The Seven Ages

1904 The Ex-Convict

1903 The Great Train Robbery

1903 Life of an American Fireman

The 1929 Wall Street Crash hit Porter hard, and he spent the subsequent years as a recluse. A later stroke robbed him of his ability to enjoy the growth of his art form.

In 1941 at the age of 71, he died at the Taft Hotel in New York, and there was hardly a ripple in the film industry. His death was virtually ignored by the medium he had given birth to.

During his decade as a filmmaker, Porter had devised trick photography, split screens, advanced editing, stop-motion animation, side-lighting, close-ups, and the unheard of: changing shots within a scene. All for the love of one goal: to heighten drama within film. He may have died a recluse, but his legacy endures in every film released since 1903.

He redefined the possible, through his innovative use of editing, camera techniques, and dramatic structure, which in turn, changed the cinematic landscape forever.

If Mount Rushmore displayed the forefathers of dramatic film, the profile of Edwin S. Porter would be one of the first to be sculptured.

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

The tumultuous times in which mankind now live, has seen nations rise against oppression in the Arab Spring. It has witnessed the planet unite in aid for the Tsunami and Earthquake devastation which hit Japan, and Haiti. It has watched strangers carry each other to safety as Hurricane Katrina destroyed their homes. It has seen brave men run through rubble into the collapsing towers. It has heard of the soldiers sacrificing their lives daily for the liberty of Iraq and Afghanistan. It has listened to the echos of miners trapped in Chile, and watched them dance through hunger.

These events have conspired to break the human spirit; to make it yield to the forces of nature. But what has always separated this species is its resistance to adversity. When a single individual is in trouble, the race is capable of the most extraordinary acts of kindness. Where before there was an indifference, an apathy to the lives of others, a new quality emerges from within. The diversity of upbringing buries it deeper inside others. But it is always there. Waiting.

“In compassion lies the world’s true strength.” Buddha 

The Human Genome Project has now mapped the genetic code of the human species. It has established what makes the race tick. What ails it. Yet the conclusions saw scientists scratching their heads: there was no explanation for why patients can smile through life-threatening illnesses, or why the crippled can rise to their feet. The 25,000 genes are not what make individuals unique, because the evolution of the race did not occur in a laboratory. This did not stop the project trying to discover irrefutable evidence of what makes you, you. But their findings only concluded what religions have always known:

“There is no gene for the human spirit.” Gattaca

Perhaps the indefinable quality of the human race came from the stars. Perhaps one day this spirit will be tested against another species from a galactic world. Perhaps the future will see the universe finally reveal the real reason why mankind was given this extraordinary gift. Perhaps.

So never take your humanity for granted, or miss an opportunity to demonstrate it to those in need.

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson 

The four letters at the end of mankind are there for a reason.

“Schwartz didn’t notice the kid during the game. Or rather, he noticed only what everyone else did – that he was the smallest player on the field, a scrawny novelty of a shortstop, quick of foot but weak with the bat. Only after the game ended, when the kid returned to the sun-scorched diamond to take extra grounders, did Schwartz see the grace that shaped Henry’s every move.” 

At eighteen, Mike Schwartz is about to embark on his sophomore year at Westish College, a fictional character in its own right, nestled in Wisconsin, when he witnesses genius at first-hand. As captain of the Westish Harpooners baseball team, he stays behind at their latest game in Peoria, to watch the extra practice of the opposition’s skinny shortstop, Henry Skrimsahnder.

“All his life Schwartz had yearned to possess some single transcendent talent, some unique brilliance that the world would consent to call genius. Now that he’d seen that kind of talent up close, he couldn’t let it walk away.”

The seventeen and half year old Henry, from Lankton, South Dakota, dreams of becoming as masterful as his idol, Aparicio Rodriguez, a fictional character, based on the real shortstop Luis Aparicio. The legendary Aparicio Rodriguez himself, has written what Henry, and many within the novel, revere as the greatest book ever ‘The Art of Fielding.’ A book seen in the back pockets of many of the players, and constantly referrenced with insightful advice.

“99. To reach a ball he has never reached before, to extend himself to the very limits of his range, and then a step farther: this is the shortstop’s dream.”

The use of this book throughout, is a quite brilliant literary technique by the author. Its authenticity seems so unyielding, that it is hard to fathom it is fictional: a book within a book, created by an author with extraordinary skill.

Convinced that Henry has a unique gift, Schwartz begs the college’s President, Guert Affenlight, to pull some strings to get him enrolled at Westish. The sixty-year-old Affenlight manages to convince the parents of Owen Dunne, to forgo one of his scholarship privileges and take in a roommate. Owen, known to all as Buddha, quickly becomes good friends with the intraverted Henry.

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”

They, along with their fellow freshmans, Adam Starblind, Rick O’Shea, and Izzy Avila, endeavour to make the cut of Coach Ron Cox, to play for the Westish Harpooners. None more so than Henry, nicknamed Skrimmer, who under the training of Schwartz pushes his body to the extremes, in order to displace the current shortstop, Lev Tennant.

“Baseball was an art, but to excel at it you had to become a machine. What mattered, as for any machine, was repeatability. Moments of inspiration were nothing compared to elimination of error.”

But it is through Schwartz’s eyes, that the story of Henry unfolds. This tortured soul, who himself does whatever he can to push beyond the pain barrier, is determined to develop Skrimmer into a Major League Star, even at the detriment of his own self-worth.

“Mike Schwartz, Nietzsche’s camel.”

Running alongside his quest, is the mesmerizing story of President Affenlight, the co-protagonist of the novel. Separated from his wife, Sarah Coowe, he longs to build bridges with his twenty-three-year-old daughter, Pella, who has come to stay with him at the college.

“They’d been fighting half her life, and yet the fights always felt like aberrations.”

Pella aspires to continue her studies in the hope of finding a purpose in life, having run away from her much older Architect husband, David.

“When they spoke, they spoke in monosyllables, more like characters in a Carver story.”

She soon finds work, thanks to the head of Dining Services, Chief Spirodocus, and becomes an integral character. In fact, she is the only female protagonist, in this male-dominated novel, despite brief appearances by Henry’s sister: Sophie. One would think this is a risk by the author, in alienating the largest reading audience in the world, but it is in fact his true saving grace: Pella is so intricately developed with gestures and sayings, that she is utterly absorbing. A reader can see how many years of drafts went into creating someone this fascinating, just by the way she lingers after every appearance. Consequently she is superior to many leading protagonists in female-driven fiction.

In the midst of these entwined stories is Henry, a prodigy which all eyes are trained on, as he strives to fulfill what Schwartz believes is his destiny:

“He alone was headed where they each, in the privacy of their backyard imaginations, had spent the better part of their boyhoods: a major-league diamond.”

A founding member of the literary journal n+1, Chad Harbach spent nine years working on his manuscript before a bidding war landed him a publishing deal. This meticulous decade-long development process of research and rewrites, is evident within every single one of its eighty-two chapters, and the reason it sold for well over half a million dollars.

The nuances in the character expressions, the subtext of each scene, the poetic turn of phrase, and the stillness of melancholy, brand this fiction to the brain.

Yet throughout the 480 pages of this beautifully written novel, one still hopes for that piece of magic that many books fail to deliver: a moment of greatness which will live in the memory. So when it arrives towards the end of chapter 48, on page 302, it instantly elevates this debut above many releases in literary fiction, with its virtuoso scene of storytelling perfection. Every sinew of the author’s wondrous ingenuity, is encapsulated in one of the finest fragments of dramatic prose committed to the page in modern literature.

So it is unfortunate that many readers might be dissuaded from reading this novel, due to their complete disinterest in baseball. Because this particular reader does not watch, follow, or even understand baseball, but still appreciates how superlative this novel is. It is much more than a perceptive analysis of sporting adversities. It is story of love, friendship, and honour, and the pursuit which lies within us all: chasing our dreams.

The characters, and Westish college, are so astutely written, that one cannot but eulogize about a novel which never falters in its ability to immerse the reader in its world: one can smell the wooden panelling of the student halls, hear the ping of the baseball bats, and see the sapphire shine of the baseball field.

It takes a very special talent, akin to Henry himself, to make those who have never watched the sport, comprehend how it manages to touch so many lives, and yearn to watch the effortless artistry of a real shortstop in the haze of the diamond lights.

The Art of Fielding is itself, Art. It should be put on display with the annals of literary classics: for it is as magnificent a novel as one can possibly hope to read.

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

One of the most famous opening lines in literature, from one of the most heralded novels ever written.

Yet what cannot be comprehended until the pages of this nine hundred page epic are consumed, is just how significant this line is. It is not so much an opening line, as a tagline. One that totally encapsulates everything which follows.

This thread runs right through the lives of the seven main characters. For despite being the protagonist of the title, Anna Karénina shares page count with innumerable lifelike individuals, whose existence as purely fictional seems almost incomprehensible. The author shares so much of their inner thoughts and desires with the reader, that the novel resembles a document to actual events and dialogue. Even the supporting characters, peasants, and servants, excude an authenticity in their mannerisms and interactions. Many were no doubt based on people the author had encountered on his family estate and those of others. In fact, elements of Anna, were believed to have been inspired by a family friend, Anna Stepanovna Pirogov. So it is of no wonder, that the author toyed with the idea of calling his heroine Anastasia, or Tatiana in the earlier drafts.

Central to Anna’s story, are her brother, Prince Stepán Arkadyevitch Oblónsky, and his wife Princess Dárya Alexándrovna, known as Dolly. Two well rounded characters, who have developed a marital understanding between them, which Anna cannot endure with her own husband, Count Alexéi Alexándrovich Karénin. Twenty years her senior, this studious society man is only concerned with how they appear to others, and not to each other. Consequently, their son, Sergéi Alexéich, is used as an excellent juxtaposition tool by the author, to unite their family, and yet divide the future Anna envisages with her lover Count Alexéi Vrónsky.

“This child with his naïve outlook on life was the compass which showed them the degree of their departure from what they knew but did not want to know.”

Vrónsky, a dashing military man, has a fascinating undercurrent to his nature. A reader will frequently feel both empathy and animosity towards him. The first, not only in light of his struggles with how society treats him for courting another man’s wife, but the deterioration of respect within his own family circle. The second, because in spite of his genuine love for Anna, one always feels he is never quite good enough for her. Not by virtue of his stature, but because Anna is so special, such a rare breed, that nobody can ever be truly deservering of her reciprocal love. The way in which the author juggles this relationship is utterly absorbing, and clearly evident of the one year of research, and four years of writing. A particularly poignant moment is when Anna takes exception to Vrónsky’s demand for respect. A demand that her own husband has subjected her to for years.

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”

Contrasting with her love story is that of Princess Ekaterína Alexándrovna, known as Kitty, who is cherished by her suitor Konstantín Dmítrievich Lévin:

“The girls in the world were divided into two sorts: one sort was all the girls in the world except her, the other sort was her alone, with no weaknesses and higher than everything human.”

In the earlier drafts, their story was merely a backburner to Anna, but in the final version, the author has devoted nearly half of the novel to them, with Levin even becoming a co-protagonist. The author’s own wife claimed her husband was Levin: that it is through these eyes that the story threads of Anna’s existence are weaved. So it is of no surprise how extraordinarily well written this character is. He is given some of the best lines in the novel, and certainly the most enlightening interior monolgues:

“He absolutely had to be with and talk to someone, so as not to remain alone, so as to cheat time.” 

The same clarity does not apply to Anna Karénina. Her actions and gestures, are cloaked in such ambiguity that it not only keeps those around her on their toes, but the readers as well. This relentless seesaw of characterisation commands complete attention, and that in itself is a structural masterstroke by the author. Just when one thinks they have her worked out, they realise they do not know her at all. A feeling shared with every single character she comes in contact with. Anna Karénina is an enigma, either through a deliberate literary mechanism of illusion, or the author himself never fully grasped her essence. Yet both strains of thought conform to Anna’s own: trying to attain the unattainable.

“He thought he knew me. And he knows me as little as anyone else in the world knows me. I don’t know myself.”

Although divided into eight parts, the final part itself was initially banned from publication, due to its political stance over the Montenegrin-Ottoman War. One wonders if this censorship should have been indefinite, because part seven contains some of the finest climatic prose ever written.

This dénouement alone has influenced countless television and movie moments, not to mention the numerous authors who have endeavoured to match its brilliance. But therein lies the problem, it cannot be beaten, for the ending of this penultimate section is why the novel is so revered. Throughout the preceding parts, one admires and enjoys the read, but it is only upon experiencing the final pages of part seven, does one truly fathom why this novel is regularly elevated above all others. Its magnificent punctuation leaves the reader not wanting to read anything else ever again, never mind another fifty pages of this book. Hence, the publication ban on the final section, should have been for artistic reasons, not political ones.

The iconic images of Leo Tolstoy are usually those in old age, but he was just forty-five-years-old when he wrote this extraordinary novel. A novel he claims was his first, and yet later in life claimed that it had no value, as he said of all fiction. So he would frown at the greatest ever novel lists that many still compile nearly one hundred and forty years since his publication. Often cited in the top three, and certainly never far from the top twenty, just what makes this fiction the author dismissed, one that mankind cannot?

Perhaps because it has come to signify more than a work of fiction. First published in serial instalments between 1873-1877 in The Russian Messenger, the story has become part of the fabric of the reading society. Those that have yet to go beyond the opening sentence, refrain due to the page count. This reader was no exception. But once Tolstoy has you in his grip, the story of Anna transcends all expectations. The rising digits bring one closer to the conclusion of a reading experience that will stay in the memory forever.

Anna Karenina is a quintessential read for one reason above all others: this novel will outlive us all.

Originally published in Esquire Magazine it later appeared in his best-selling novel Just After Sunset which is where I first discovered it.

Synopsis(as written by Stephen King)

Author John Dykstra, who writes under the pen name of Rick Hardin, has had too much beer to drink at his mystery writer’s group meeting and desperately needs to find a rest stop on his return from Jacksonville to Sarasota.

There is only one other car at the rest stop and he hears its occupants in the Ladies’ Room. It is a woman’s and a man’s voice he hears coming from the bathroom and clearly the sounds of domestic abuse.

John Dykstra has to decide how, or even if, he will act to stop it.

After contacting Stephen’s office with my proposal, they were impressed enough to send me the contracts. These were recently signed and exchanged.

Pre-production is due to commence in 2013.

It is now available in the iTunes store by clicking here where you can subscribe to the podcast and download the clips to your device.

The Velvet Abstract

A narrated poem about the environmental age set against a plethora of CG, Illustrations, and Animations from a team spanning six continents

The Stars & The Stones

A man dying of Aids narrates his reflections of hurt about the woman he loves as his own life slips away

Background To The Novel

In 2006, South Florida’s leading Industry newspaper, SoFlim, posted an ad seeking a Writer of short stories for their publication. I was fortunate enough to beat off the competition, and decided to write one story, with each chapter appearing monthly. The first chapter was published that year and was distributed to over 60,000 readers in Florida.

Shortly after, the Owner received an offer for the paper and decided to sell up and he moved to Hollywood to work as a TV Producer. I had already written the next two chapters, but was so busy on other projects that I was unable to pursue the story as a novel. However, during the subsequent two years I still developed the characters and story in numerous notepads.

When my schedule was clear in late 2008, I spent time in Florida and did extensive research on the novel. This encompassed many locations across Fort Lauderdale and Cudjoe Key. With the invaluable help of numerous experts in their field from Doctors, Lawyers, Sergeants, and local residents, I was able to begin working on the manuscript in 2009.

Throughout the writing process I was in regular contact with those that I had met and their guidance ensured that the state’s procedures were adhered to and not fictionalised.

When the first draft was completed I put it in a draw for several months, so that I could approach the rewrite with completely fresh eyes.

The novel will go out for submission in early 2013.

The Production

Having discovered my previous short film The Stars & The Stones online, Barbed Wire FX sent me an email of praise in which they outlined their intentions to work together on a future project.

At their request I flew to Los Angeles for a meeting with the CEO, and they soon committed their involvement to The Velvet Abstract.

The following year was spent recruiting Artists to work remotely from their own studios. Spanning six continents, the production now has talent working on the film in America; Switzerland; the UK; Germany; Sweden; Australia; Serbia; Malta; Austria; Canada; Malaysia; France; Mexico, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Individually they have worked on:The Hunger Games; Avatar; The Amazing Spider-Man; Rise of the Planet of the Apes; Shutter Island; The Day After Tomorrow; Spider-Man 2; Traffic; Air Force One; The Golden Compass; Solaris; Shrek 2; AVPR: Aliens vs Predators – Requiem; Angeles & Demons; The Manchurian Candidate; The Incredible Hulk; Ali; The Cabin in the Woods; Snow White and the Huntsman; I Am Legend; Alias; X-Men; Star Wars; Lost, and many more.

Teaser Trailer 1

The short film is due to be released in 2013.

“This is it. Her head was strangely clear despite the blood filling up her nose and mouth. An inch from her eye, the floor of the toilet was that kind of speckled plastic you got in public buildings, the dots like islands marooned in a sea of blue.”

The prologue of this debut paints an evocative picture of an initially unknown character superbly depicted on the jacket cover.

As with this clever design, the one page opening hooks the reader and propels them into the investigation of a nightclub murder. Seamlessly divided into six parts, the novel’s intertwined structure focuses on three very distinctive characters:

Charlotte Miller

As the fiancé of a wealthy banker, with an idyllic London apartment, Charlotte is living the dream. With her imminent wedding to Daniel Stockbridge less than a week away, she is on the cusp of achieving everything she has ever yearned for. Yet she still longs to be accepted wholeheartedly by his parents, and especially her neighbours.

“Wishing she could lose whatever it was about her that so screamed middle-class.”

Her very essence is encapsulated within a few pages, so that the reader utterly comprehends who she is as a person, and more importantly, what would break her.

“She felt the weakness in her, that her world was built all around him like a fragile plant on a trellis, and if he pulled away it would tear her up.”

The consummate skill of the author to achieve this understanding so quickly, reveals an authoritative grasp on characterisation.

DC Matthew Hegarty

At the centre of the murder investigation, is a Detective Constable enamoured with London, and all it has to offer a single man on the up. A country boy now in the big city, his love affair with it has never waned.

“London had shops, theatres, and beautiful sexy women you hadn’t gone to school with since you were four.”

Yet it is this wandering eye, which allows him to pick up on every single detail of a room, and a witness’s gestures.

“You never knew. That was what he’d learned, if anything, from being in the police.”

So that despite overwhelming evidence, and the convictions of his superiors, Hegarty has a niggling doubt that something is awry. Although his susceptibility to new evidence leads him down a very dangerous path, which threatens to compromise his own command.

Keisha Collins

A key witness in the investigation, she is at first, extremely reluctant to help the Police. But with the chance to regain custody of her daughter, Ruby, from Foster care, she strives to uncover the truth for herself, despite the constant threat to her own safety.

“She looked about her and drew up her hood. You never knew who might be around.”

Consequently, she is the driving force of the novel. A living, breathing person who becomes part of a reader’s own life, to such an extent that it is hard to comprehend that she is fictional. Her blistering narrative is unforgettable.

“She’s a riot. Mouth like a sailor on shore leave.”

Keisha Collins is a character who jumps off the page and headbutts you.

With the uncompromising style of this debut, one gets the impression that the author has been held in restraints for several years, aching to write. Now with the opportunity to show readers what she can do, she relentlessly lets every part of her talent pour onto the page. The incredible speed with which the three narrative voices carry the reader along, makes this stunning debut unputdownable.

The merits of the writing has already seen the novel finish runner-up in the inaugural Sony Reader Award for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Which in turn landed the author her two-book publishing deal with Headline.

The high level of skill demonstrated by the author recently secured her the prestigious role as Director of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). The experience gleamed from this position will invariably mean the reader will enjoy a succession of riveting page-turners from this author throughout her career.

The Fall sees Claire McGowan burst onto the crime-ficition scene with one of the strongest narratives in the entire genre.