The
Lincoln Lawyer was something of a surprise when it hit theaters this past spring – a
sturdily constructed, well acted thriller, it memorably cast Matthew McConaughey as Mickey
Haller, a slimy lawyer who operates from the back seat of a Lincoln sedan. We got to talk to
Michael Connolly, who created the character in a series of novels, about the film (which just
hit Blu-ray).
How involved were you in the film version of The Lincoln Lawyer?
I started out uninvolved, which is normally my course of action, so I can write books and
leave it to Hollywood to try to make movies out of some of them. So I made this deal back in
2005 and never really heard much about anything. Then three years went by and I was
contacted by Matthew McConaughey and he told me was going to play the role and he
wanted to get more information about where the character comes from. So I was pulled into
it by him and his interest. So I met with him and we started sending emails back and forth.
That's what brought me into it, in a very limited way. Then I went out west and went filming
a few different times. I got the itinerary of what they were shooting when and I picked what I
considered to be the important scenes to be out there. I was there to give opinions if I asked.
Were you sold on Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller from the beginning?
I was sold right away, and for an odd reason. First of all, he's not like the guy in the book,
visually, at all – he's got the Texas twang there, too, which isn't like the guy in the book. And
you'd think this would be an issue for me but it wasn't – because of that movie
Tropic
Thunder. In that movie he plays an underhanded, slippery Hollywood agent and there
was something about the way he played that very small role that made me think he would be
a really good Mickey Haller. And about a year later I find out he's Mickey Haller. So the
moment I was told I thought it could be good.
What is the hold-up for characters like this to make it to the big screen? Your famous
character Harry Bosch has never made it to the big screen and it's taken a while for Mickey
Haller to make it, too.
Harry Bosch has kind of been in development hell – there have been some really strong
attempts made, a lot of scripts written in the 90s about him. I think the hold up, in his case,
he's a very internal character. That's very hard to get into a script. When you shift to what
he's thinking to what he does, you can lose a lot. You often hear writers castigate Hollywood
for being stupid, but they were actually very smart in regards to Harry Bosch. These are
serviceable scripts but the character is not there and we haven't been able to crack that. With
Mickey Haller, the screenwriter John Romano, did a really great job of getting that character
and wed that to McConaughey. He has it in the way he walks, in the way he carries his
briefcase – he's a guy on the move.
There are a number of books – is this something they're looking to develop into a series
or is this a one-shot type deal?
I think they're at a point where they'll either do it again with McConaughey and if he doesn't
want to do it, they try to bring it to television. I don't think they're satisfied with doing it just
this one time. I think everybody was pretty satisfied with what they did. So they want to do it
again, whether it's on the big screen again or on TV. It's being pursued. I don't think we've
seen the last of Mickey Haller on film.
Where did this character come from?
I met a guy who worked that way. Way back when I was a newspaper reporter in Los
Angeles, I covered courts. I met this guy who told me he was a defense attorney, and I asked
him where his office was and he told me that he actually worked out of his car. He was very
quick to explain that it wasn't because he was a bad lawyer but it was because it was the best
way to do it in the city of the freeway. From that I started seeing the possibilities of a fictional
story about a guy who works that way. It's a very LA story, this story of a guy who uses what
many people see as a disadvantage of the city to his advantage. It started rolling in my head
and went from there!
You're a fan of LA noir [he rented a house for a few years that appeared in Robert
Altman's The Long Goodbye] – do you feel like the films based on your works have
contributed well to the genre?
I hope so. I think with
Lincoln Lawyer you see a different side of LA than you
normally see – you see the kind of gritty, rugged side. The way they filmed it adds that. The
thing they say when I went to work to the LA Times, to all the new reports is – "LA: A sunny
place for shady people." And I think that this film shows that. If that's my minor contribution,
I'm pretty proud of that.
You have such an incredible work ethic – between the novels and books (which are
always at such high quality). What is your schedule like?
Well, people think that I'm on some kind of treadmill. I appreciated that you said "of high
quality," because that's the key. You've got to maintain quality. It's always quality over
quantity. But maybe it's because I worked in newspapers where I was writing all the time. It
was a great training ground. I don't have any deadlines from publishers. I just write and turn
in, and it ends up being at least one book a year. Some years I'm just more inspired and have
a lot more momentum. This is one of those years.
Do you ever come up with an idea and then say, "I can't do Harry Bosch, I can't do
Mickey Haller?"
I use my characters in real time, so Harry Bosch is getting up there. There will come in a time
in the next few years when the naturally progression will end. And maybe I'll think, well, I'll
do my massive Los Angeles historical novel then. But you always have stuff in your back
pocket to consider and all that stuff might happen. But for the time being I'm fascinated with
both of these characters. I just finished a Harry Bosch book and before that was a Mickey
Haller. And I'm not done with either character. But maybe another character with flit in and
I'll say, I have to go in another direction. I just write by instinct and the ways of creative
thought.
Is there a book that you've always wanted to tackle that you've never been able to
because of the day-to-day obligations of the series?
There are some in the background that I want to tackle but the reason I haven't tackled
them is not because of the series. It's more like as a writer I'm not ready yet. I'm not going
to talk about what it is because it could be years before I get to it, but I have a strong idea for
a book and I've had it for at least six years.
The Lincoln Lawyer was an idea I got in
2000 and it was another four years before I wrote it.
You talk about how hard it's been for Harry Bosch to make it to the big screen yet the
characters comingle in the novels all the time – would it be possible to introduce the Harry
Bosch character in a forthcoming Lincoln Lawyer movie? Or are the rights so
embroiled elsewhere that it's not a possibility?
You know, in a perfect world, you'd think we could do that. Your word is right – embroiled.
I'm in this stage where I'm just about going to be able to get Harry Bosch back into my
controls. So if that happens, that could be a possibility. But it probably is a long shot, just in
terms of the way Hollywood works.
Did it surprise you that Lincoln Lawyer was developed on a smaller scale?
No. It was kind of my choice. I sold it to Lakeshore in 2005, way before the book came out.
But it made the rounds and it got attention from a lot of studios and producers. And I'd had
experiences with big studios in Hollywood and nothing happening, so I was predisposed to go
with a smaller entity. And the producer, Todd Rosenberg, was an attorney and he impressed
upon me that in my book I captured a world that he knew. There's a lot of hope and trust
when you sell a book in Hollywood and I just kind of went with this deal here and my feeling
was that they'd get it done. And they did. I didn't think it would take five years but they did
get it done.
What approach do you have when it comes to movies made about your books? Are you
more hands-off and feel like, the movie is the movie and it won't influence the book, or are
you more concerned with how your book comes across?
Well, I love movies. I've been influenced by movies as much as I've been influenced by books.
It would be hard for me to not take this gamble, the money and so-forth aside. It's a gamble.
I'm sitting here in my office and on the shelves over there, are my books. They're not
touched, they're not damaged, and they'll always be my books. To me, the film is just
another way of telling the story and it's not my way. I write books, these people make films.
So I think it's worth the gamble – sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I'm certainly
happy with
The Lincoln Lawyer. After six years, the book was on the best-sellers list
again. It's certainly brought me new readers, readers that can jump from Mickey Haller to
Harry Bosch. The movie is bringing a lot of people to my stories. It's a certainly a gamble I'm
willing to take any time.