A Mr. Murder film starring Bruce Willis?

December 3, 2017

Here’s an intersting excerpt from Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories edited byPeter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman

Chapter 3: The Marketplace of Ideas

“MICHAEL WOLK: I had many experiences in Hollywood of not pitching original ideas, but of going into meetings with producers who had a property already and were looking for a way to ignite it. It was either something that had lain dormant for a while, or it was a new property, or a sequel they were trying to create, and they were pumping writers for ideas.
“I had a marvelous interaction with Dean Koontz, who is somewhat more popular than, let’s say, me. He had written a book called Mr. Murder, and it was being developed as a script for Bruce Willis. I really liked the book, and I had some great ideas how to make it better for the screen.
“I got down to the finals, and I was talking to Mr. Koontz himself over the phone. I was able to impart my story-making magic to Mr. Koontz, who listened. But in the end I was nixed for the job because, basically, Dean Koontz thought he’d written a pretty good story, and he didn’t think I’d written a better one.”