The Deep Blue Good-by Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's been nearly two months since Leonardo DiCaprio optioned a new project, and he must have thought we would start calling him lazy. In August, Monika reported that he had 25 projects in various stages of pre-production, and now you can add a 26th, as Variety says he's attached to star in The Deep Blue Goodbye, an adaptation of John D. MacDonald's 1964 thriller.

Goodbye is the first of MacDonald's Travis McGee series, which spanned the course of 21 novels. McGee is like a beach bum version of James Bond, a bachelor who happily resides on a houseboat named the Busted Flush. (To add to his cool, he won it in a poker game.) He works as a freelance "salvage consultant," which means he tries to retrieve money or property that a client has been wrongfully deprived of. His life is one of money, adventure, dames, and weird villains all set against sunny Florida, some of whom he'll "bend way, way, over, but not break." Sexy stuff!

To be fair, DiCaprio has reportedly been attached to produce and play McGee for some time, but the movie reporting world learned about it thanks to Fox's new executive Peter Chernin, who is coming aboard Goodbye as producer alongside DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran. Dana Stevens is penning the script, and the film does not yet have a start date. With DiCaprio's ever growing slate, this post could be long forgotten by the time Goodbye sails in front of the camera.

If you happen to be a fan of mystery novels from the 60's and 70's, then the name John D. MacDonald probably rings a bell. If not, it looks like you are going to get the chance to get to know him, but on the big-screen instead. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Fox is planning on a feature film version of McDonald's The Deep Blue Good-By, and that Gary Fleder (the man behind Kiss the Girls and Runaway Jury) is in talks to direct.

Good-By was the first novel in McDonald's Travis McGee series. McGee is a Korean War vet and amateur sleuth who works as a "salvage consultant," recovering property and money for his clients (for a tidy fee) while operating out of a houseboat in Florida -- sadly without an alligator named Elvis. MacDonald wrote over 20 novels starring Travis McGee, so the project could be a great opportunity for Fox to get a new franchise up and running.

Fleder's feature debut was Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead back in 1995. Since then, Fleder has mainly made thrillers, but, he recently got the chance to flex his biopic muscles with the Ernie Davis biography, The Express, starring Dennis Quaid and Charles S. Dutton. Fleder might have the most experience when it comes to thrillers, but MacDonald was known for having a dark sense of humor in his capers. So if Fleder does sign for the film, he might have to lighten up a little this time around.