A letter from Brian Garfield

...Hello and harrumph. . . .


I probably owe you a letter. I apologize. If you owe me one, I take it
back. (!)

Bina and I are fine -- we hold hands a lot because if I let go, she goes
shopping. Ace the poodle is fine. There seems to be too much to do around
here but no time to keep up with friends and relations, many of whom (at
least two or three) have been asking about the forthcoming movie. So here's
info about it and the current book . . .

Title is "Death Sentence". (I'm told I can sell stories to the movies
only if they have "Death" in the title. Only one other of the previous
threescore books and dozen or more movies has met that criterion -- unless
you count sequels -- but there you are.)

"Death Sentence" is scheduled to open across the U.S. on 31 August for
the Labor Day weekend. It's based, in theme if not particulars, on my novel
of same title. I wrote a couple of the scripts; the shooting script is
written by Ian Jeffers. I think he did a good job.

Stars are Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, Kelly Preston, Garrett Hedlund and
Aisha Tyler. Director is James Wan ("Saw"). Releasing studio is 20th
Century Fox, and they're utterly paranoid about showing the film to us --
they haven't screened it even for my agent, for cryin' out loud! (They
have, however, screened it for reviewers. The rats.)

Fox's bashfulness may be a symptom of their morbid fear of piracy --
other than that, evidently they feel it's a good action picture with
something for us to think about. A New York Times critic who's sneaked a
peak at it tells me he liked it a lot. Apparently they're concealing it
only from some of its participants. Ain't that Rupert for you.

Be warned, however. It's a violent action film. That seems to be a
requirement of this angry era. I could do with a lot less
blood-and-thunder. But the cast is excellent and I believe the movie will
make the point I wanted to see it make. One of the online journals calls it
an "extreme look at the downward spiral for a family man out to take the law
into his own hands." Sounds accurate to me.

The movie has a website < http://www.deathsentencemovie.com/ >.

Clips as well as the trailer-preview can be found at <
http://www.worstpreviews.com/trailer.php?id=607&item=5 > -- (do they mean
it's among the worst previews or worst movies?) -- and the clip numbered
"5" -- with Kevin Bacon and John Goodman -- is, to me at least, quite funny.

The trailer can be found online at various places --
-- on YouTube
-- or at <
http://www.filmsy.com/action/kevin-bacons-death-sentence-trailer-online/ >
-- or at <
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809765379/video/3328662/standardformat >

Plugs:

A new tie-in reprint trade edition of the novel will be available a few
weeks from now on Amazon.com at, I believe, $14.95.

Also we're selling our few copies of the out-of-print Bantam and
Mysterious Press paperbacks, signed by y'r humble & obedient s'v't, and/or
inscribed by request; the price for these out-of-print (signed at request)
books will be $39.95 -- order 'em at briagar@aol.com.

For further info about all that, see my website at <
www.briangarfield.net > or write to us at what passes for the office at <
briagar@aol.com > .

Also there's an interview with me -- for a limited time -- in the new
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Website for the interview, by Steve
Hockensmith, is < http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/crime/ > . And
there'll be an article in the 26 August (Sunday) New York Times by David
Halbfinger, in which I'm interviewed, about the various vigilante-revenge
movies coming out this season (another is Jodie Foster's "The Brave One",
which opens two weeks after "Death Sentence").

And the most recent book, "The Meinertzhagen Mystery", published by
Potomac Books, is on sale in many bookshops and at the online retailers.

Sorry. I usually don't pester anyone with self-promotion, so please
accept apologies.

We're at the same old stands, alternating Los Angeles and Santa Fe. Hope
to see or hear from you before too long.

Apologies again for mass distribution of this info. . . .

Y'rn,
Br'n