Author James Patterson Rebooting Alex Cross

As 1990s potboilers go, I thought Kiss the Girls was pretty effective, although I couldn't say the same thing for Along Came a Spider. Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross, a sort of thinking man's action hero (who performs very little action), was a good fit, but now that another decade has passed, I wonder how they're going to approach future movies. Empire reports that author James Patterson is developing an origin story called Cross through his own development company, meaning Freeman can't possibly return. The film will tackle the early years of Cross' career as he tries tracking down his wife's killer. Kerry Williamson (late of a future Darren Aronofsky heist thrilla) worked with Patterson on the script, and the author has brought in a couple seasoned producers to handle that end of things. I'm still leery of novelists serving as their own producers, so at least Patterson has reached out for a little bit of help there. Who knows what kind of interest a studio will have in this movie, although creating an origin story sure sounds like the first steps toward a franchise. Is it a familiar enough character to build a series of films around, and if so, who do you cast? Who is a young Morgan Freeman, exactly? That could be troublesome. Of course, even if it's great casting, I'm not sold on these types of whodunits really sticking with audiences right now. We're in a different part of the cycle, and thoughtful, character-driven detective movies just aren't a sure thing right now.

Comments

[JP]

It isn't an origin story. Cross was a recent book. While it examines the death of his wife, it takes place after the events of the first two books and several others after that. But Freeman is still too old to play the character. He was fine on the early films, but he was much older than the character was intended to be and it made them adjust the story for film. Not to mention Along Came a Spider was the first story and it ended up being the sequel on film.

A younger actor is still a much better idea. There are plenty of options out there. It just needs to be an actor who can carry the story.

[Get The Big Picture]

Sorry, JP, I was leaning on Empire for that: "The twelfth novel published in the series of (so far) sixteen, Cross is an origin story, in which the titular detective is very early in his career, on the trail of his wife's murderer."

Thanks for the correction.

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