Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
And I'm delighted now to be joined in the studio by Irish author, Sunday Times bestseller, John Connolly, who has recently released his latest book in his Charlie Parker series called A River Red With Blood. John, you're very welcome.
It's very nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
And you've very exciting news to tell us about. All of these fancy stars. Do I?
Chapter 2: What is John Connolly's latest book about?
Do I? You do. I know it's probably been around in your life for a long time, the Amazon, the TV deal, the Charlie Parker deal. But for the rest of us, it's like, God, fair play to him.
Well, the thing is, firstly, let's just say that it's far cheaper and easier not to make something than to make something. And we've been at various stages of things before. But anyway, where we are is we're kind of in the middle of the process where Amazon and Blumhouse have signed on and we have a number of producers, including Colin Farrell and his sister and Brian Cranston.
And now what they have to do, and I had to ask about this because I was completely unfamiliar with it. They now have to recruit a showrunner. and the showrunner writes a pilot episode. And if the pilot episode passes muster, and he also has to do an outline of an initial season and then, in theory, four seasons after that.
And if all of that passes muster, they might then put money on the table to make a pilot episode. But Game of Thrones is a very salutary lesson for any writer who wants to get involved in television because two things happen.
Firstly, when they tried to make a sequel to Game of Thrones, they got to the pilot stage and they made a pilot and they put a lot of money into it and they cast it and they ditched it. because they watched it and thought it didn't work. So you can get to that stage.
Yes, you can't rely on it happening.
Yeah, and it doesn't happen. And the other thing is I had to tell the... They wanted to do something interesting, which is why it appealed to me, in that they wanted to reorganise all the material. They didn't want something that was going to be like lost, that stretched on forever and disappointed people at the end. So they wanted five seasons.
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Chapter 3: How did John Connolly get involved with the Amazon TV deal?
They were going to reorganise 20 books, pick and choose material, and they wanted the ending, which I hadn't told even my wife. But you had an ending. Yeah, but I had a destination, but I didn't know the route I was going to take to it. And so... I then have again the George R. R. Martin situation, which is what happened with him was that television overtook the material that he had in hand.
So the television overtook his books. And he had obviously sat down with them at some point, as I had, and said, look, here's what I'm planning. But then when it came down to it, nobody liked his ending. And I think poor old George R. R. Martin got creatively stymied at that stage because what do you do? You have a series that's incomplete. Nobody liked the ending that you came up with.
You kind of kick that ball down the road and hope maybe God takes you so you don't have to worry about it.
And has anyone given you feedback on your proposed ending?
Literally, I am the least important person in this process, genuinely. I'm the person who sits at home and occasionally somebody makes a telephone call and asks me something. I did have to go through the books and really find... material that I thought would be useful for them.
Rather than have some poor guy or girl have to sit down with three million words of my deathless prose and wade through it. So I kind of did a lot of the hard work there and picked and chose these. But genuinely, one would be very unwise to go putting down a deposit on a yacht. At this stage. No, you're not doing that. No, I'm not. And if it happens, wonderful.
And everybody is very well intentioned. But no, these things, there is many a slip between cup and lip in television and cinema.
So I take it then you don't know if Colin will be in it or Bryan Cranston will be in it.
I have not had that conversation.
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Chapter 4: What challenges does John Connolly face with adapting his work for television?
And they're poorly paced. And again... Writers who want to see their work transferred directly to the screen aren't going to be disappointed. These are two very different mediums.
Although the Harry Potter films run on a loop in my house.
Oh, yeah. Oh, OK.
And they're perfectly entertaining.
Yes.
Can we watch the darker ones, the later ones? You could probably star in it by now.
You can recite large tracts of it.
Yeah, I know. I know. I can. I really can. Listen, your book, this most recent one, deals with this phenomenon that I don't think most of us would know about that happens in the States with troubled teens and where they go and where they're sent.
teenagers they regard as trouble. Now, what your definition of a troubled teenager and mine may be very, very different. We're often talking about kids who might be smoking a bit of pot or who don't want to go to school or listening to Marilyn Manson, in which case really nothing wrong with them. A spell in the army won't cure.
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Chapter 5: What controversial practices exist in American schools for troubled teens?
People who have grown up with Charlie Parker and who feel that they know him, they then will see this representation eventually on the screen, which just, it'll either fit or it won't. And that's the risk that you take with this thing.
True, but the books remain. you know, the books will be there.
You don't have to watch the TV thing if you don't want to.
Oh, no, I don't. Nobody does. No, that's absolutely it. But inevitably, more people will watch television than will ever read the books. So you do reach a different constituency. And I'm not sure those people necessarily go back and buy the books. Yes. But you are certainly introducing your world to a different audience.
Always good to read the book first, though, I think, don't you?
Speaking as somebody who prefers books, then yes, I would read the book first.
I'm with you on that. John, it's been lovely to have you.
Thank you for having me here.
Thank you so much. John Connolly and the new Charlie Parker book is called A River Red With Blood and it is out now.
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Chapter 6: How does John Connolly define a troubled teenager?
It is indeed.
Thank you, John. Lovely to have you. We'll take a break.
The Clare Byrne Show with Aviva Insurance. Weekday mornings at nine on Newstalk. Conversation that counts.