A fan of A. A. Attanasio’s novels since the early 1980s, when « Radix » was translated into French, I first got into touch with Al in August 1999 after reading and rereading his and Richard Henderson’s novel « Silent. »

I had just completed my first script- a Ninja Turtles movie, of all things, which I referred to as « a science-fiction movie » for fear of looking silly, though I still think it’s a great script- and thanks to a martial arts friend of my taiji professor who had worked as an extra on a few Hong Kong movies and had met Jackie Chan personally, I had managed to get it read by people at Golden Harvest. I had been told they were very interested and would summon me to Hong Kong for a press conference, and I thought I might actually have a future in the movie industry. (Since then, I have discovered that aspiring screenwriters face a slight problem : they cannot sell a script if they do not have an agent, and they cannot get an agent if they have not sold a script. And if you live in Douai, France, there is not much you can do to get out of the vicious circle, all the more so if you hate having to « sell yourself » and would rather be « discovered » through some gratuitous divine intervention, which I am still counting on.)

My readings in the art and techniques of screenwriting still fresh in my mind, I had been struck by the powerful dramatic structure of « Silent ». I could not help thinking how easily it could be turned into a great movie script- a damsel-in-distress thriller a la Brian De Palma perhaps, or better still, an urban film noir a la David Lynch.

Still wet behind the ears, I sent an e-mail to my favorite living writer and the author of what I hold to be one of the top ten science-fiction novels of all time (« Centuries »), told him of my aspirations and (retrospectively non-existent) prospects as a screenwriter, and asked him whether he would let me work on the project. Having read all of his novels, and grown up with them, I wanted most of all to see what I could do with a manageable entry in the Attanasio canon, and I was foolish enough to believe that if I could sell the script, I might give something back to Al for the hours of mind-expanding reading he had provided me with since my late teens, and for his share in shaping the person I have become. I was a Randian back then, and one duty Randians take seriously is that of saying « thank you » to the great men in whose debt they are.

With Al’s blessing, I started working on the screenplay, which turned out to be much more arduous than I initially anticipated. Even though I loved the original novel, it had one drawback for a gourmet reader like me : it forced me to read a series of books I did not care much about, dealing with such likable fellows as Hell’s Angels and mafia dons. Even Richmond Lattimore’s translation of the « Iliad », which Richard Henderson was so fond of as a biker, failed to arouse my enthusiasm, as I found the poem to be mostly a description of mass butchery, particularly concerned with the gory details of how exactly various warriors are impaled by enemy spears, the two great questions being (1) where the spear comes in and (2) where it comes out, with the reader connecting the dots to picture the internal damage. (Now you know I’m a wuss and I have no ear for poetry.)

The research did pay however, as it directed a few of the changes I made to the novel, including the name changes, which Al was rather fond of. Bobby Gomes for instance becomes « Mad Dog », an insult Achilles hurls at Hector in the Iliad, and the hero himself, Tommy Cunningham, in addition to losing a dozen years and much of his backstory, is renamed Alexander Rogan, for Alexander- Paris’s other name- the Trojan (if the name sounds familiar, it is also a reference to a teenage cult favorite of mine, « The Last Starfighter ») and, more notably, « Striker », the biker slang for « prospect » (which gave me a title, the theme of a hero on probation and the last lines of the movie.)

Having some understanding of biker codes also enabled me to add a few authentic touches, like scrapping the Hondas (which true bikers abhor) for genuine Harleys, adding to the siege atmosphere by having the Hells Angels set out to make Massachusetts a « one patch state », as they say, or using the « colours » of two dead bikers as a plot-device.

The rest of the changes I made were guided more by the themes I felt attracted to. Probably out of disgust for the kind of people bikers and mafia men generally are, and the rather depressing picture of the derelict industrial zones of Boston, I felt the need to add a silver lining to the story by involving D.A. Bella Meris (Homer’s Aphrodite) in an almost unnoticeable Randian subplot dealing with a kind of John Galt/ Bill Gates figure (imaginatively named William Galt), which provided me with an even more explosive and visual finale. Rather than being a gratuitous addition, the subplot ties in with the whole « striking » theme of the screenplay evinced by the title (« The Strike » was the working title for « Atlas Shrugged. »)

In the movie version (which is just as much a paper version as the original, but let me indulge in my delusions of grandeur for a while), the love story is also more protracted. I would rather watch a BBC adaptation of Jane Austen than a free-love movie of the seventies, so my Ellen (Attanasio’s Bobby and Homer’s Helen) does not fall in love with Silent, or realize she is in love with him, until the last scene (sorry if I spoiled the movie for you, but if it may comfort you, there isn’t a movie.)

Crucial also is a sex-change for the novel’s Achilles, Ray Fowler, who becomes mafia donette Alice Thresher (the Thresher being one of Achilles’ nicknames in the Iliad.) This enabled me to add a strong dramatic reversal in the key scene of the movie (I am much fonder of Aristotle than I am of Homer), and to motivate more strongly the mayhem of the climax.

As a contribution to this website, I give you the opening scene of the movie, which is completely original and can best be appreciated on its own. Consisting in a raid on a mafia warehouse I call « the Depot », it enables me to introduce Mad Dog’s « mimetic » personality and plants virtually all of the subplots.

This scene is the only way I could find of starting with the cinematic equivalent of the word « Wrath », which opens both the « Iliad » and « Silent ». Pat Roccio is Patroclus, Achilles’ lover, whose death at the hands of Hector is the cause of Achilles’ greatest fury in the Iliad. His plastron is also one of the devices that play an important role later on.

Less seriously, Bassman’s pink and purple dreadlocks were inspired by the Muppet Show, and I have the Guard watch « The Simpsons » on TV, which enables me to have « Homer » as my first word. Indeed, Homer is even there in the last scene, a deliberate insertion, and a way of saying hello to the guy who started it all.

I hope this first scene whets your appetite. If it does, buy the novel- the DVD is not out yet.

Jean-Francois Vireyy