Winslow: I’m not trying to be coy or clever, OK? The answer is, I don’t know. Savages novelist and screenwriter Don Winslowįilmmaker: Getting a little background on Savages, why did you decide to write this book?

Filmmaker talked to Winslow about the book, the movie, his newly published prequel The Kings of Cool, and his relationship with the cinematic medium. The fruits of their labor hits theaters this Friday. It’s intense.”) and his longtime friend Shane Salerno tackling the screenplay alongside him, Winslow embarked upon adapting Savages for the big screen. One of Winslow’s latest paths has brought him to the attention of another crime genre maverick: director Oliver Stone ( Natural Born Killers). With Stone at the helm (of which Winslow says, “It’s everything you think working with Oliver Stone would be. Never content to rest on his laurels to stop and admire the stories already told, the paths already taken. But here we are.” Sitting with Winslow, lounged across a conference room chair with a trickster’s smirk across his face, it’s easy to see the well-earned pride that the man has in his work and its growth but the glean in his eye and the constant kineticism belies something more. Winslow notes, “It’s worked out great! And the editing process was relatively easy and I thought they’d be on me like ugly on an ape! And I thought that first chapter was gonzo. With Savages‘ abrasive opening, left-of-center writing style, and atypical central trio, Winslow wasn’t even sure the book would get published.

The author had penned more than ten novels prior to Savages, including the Neal Carey series, while moonlighting as a private investigator during grad school and the meticulous DEA/drug cartel fueled intrigue of The Power of the Dog, but Winslow describes this novel as a “big risk.” The jarring and unorthodox novel - about a trio of beach bum lovers-turned-drug kingpins and with a writing style that ranges from poetry to screenplay - became a New York Times Bestseller and a shot in the arm to Winslow’s already successful career. “Fuck you.” With those opening words of Savages, author Don Winslow delivered a kick to the teeth of the literary world. In Filmmaking, Interviews, Screenwriters, ScreenwritingĪaron Johnson, Blake Lively, Don Winslow, Oliver Stone, Savages

Savages by Don Winslow