The Dark Fields

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Alan Glynn: No, and I don’t think that’s ever a good strategy. As it turned out, the book was very Hollywood-friendly, and could be pitched in four words: “Viagra for the brain.” If you don’t earn out your advance in sales, which can be extremely hard to do, then that can be the end. It can mean no one will go near your next book. And if the advance is for two books, the second book can suffer from the poor performance of the first, in terms of how much the publisher gets behind it. JRM: That paradigm is where I live and breathe. By the way—who came up with “Viagra for the brain?” There are some things in the movie I’d like to change, but that’s hardly a surprise. When I first saw it, sitting at the premiere in New York, I absolutely loved it, and found the whole experience exhilarating. My attitude has always been that it’s my book, their movie.

As it turned out, the book was very Hollywood-friendly, and could be pitched in four words: Viagra for the brain. My subsequent two books, although similar in style and pacing, are much harder to pitch—at least in shorthand movie terms.” Because the Buchanans' mansion is directly across the bay from Gatsby's mansion, Gatsby can always see the green light. Alan Glynn: Sure, a script is a big step closer to a movie, assuming you or someone you’re working with has a clear idea of what’s possible and practical and it has a real chance of being made. Otherwise you’re working in a vacuum. I did do a lot of research—a great book I read was Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream by Jay Stevens—but when it came to it the drug was purely a product of my imagination.

Limitless had its world premiere in New York City on March 8, 2011. [12] It was released in 2,756 theaters in the United States and Canada on March 18, 2011. [3] A spinoff of the film based on the novel premiered in 2015, under the same title. It is a sequel which follows the events of the film.

I'm always saddened when this happens. You see a movie, made after a book, and you get the feeling there is some dense, convergent story in the book that had to be greatly simplified to fit into movie form. Instead, what you get is an unfocused, chaotic story with a disappointing ending.

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This time it's Limitless (2011), directed by Neil Burger and written by Leslie Dixon, adapted from the novel The Dark Fields (2001) by Alan Glynn.)

JRM: I can see where it makes sense on the book side, if that’s what you mean; a bad book wouldn’t have been optioned, and a bad movie isn’t going to sell a lot of books, even good ones. In the beginning of the novel, the light stands for Gatsby's dreams, hopes, and desires to reunite with Daisy. Good, but very different from the movie. Recall that this book was originally named "The Dark Fields" and written by a brooding Irishman. Don't expect the same story arc or ending as you find in a Hollywood movie named "Limitless."

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JRM: What rights did you retain at that time—meaning which rights had you reserved to yourself when doing the book deal with the publisher?