This week has been such a joy for me and my family. The reaction to the teaser trailer of AMERICAN ASSASSIN has been so nice to see and I couldn’t agree more with the thousands of positive email messages, facebook posts and tweets that I’ve managed to see. I also couldn’t be more impressed by the way CBS Films, Lionsgate, the cast and crew worked tirelessly and respectfully to get us to the exciting point that we have reached.
As Vince always said, when you sell off the rights to your books and characters you have to hope and pray that you’ve chosen the right partners to take on the project because the author loses all control. I truly believe Vince would be quite proud of the decision he made. There will always be differences between movies and the books that their based on—a few of my friends have asked me specifically about how the book AMERICAN ASSASSIN takes place in the 80’s and 90’s while its clear in the trailer that the movie version takes place in modern times. It was explained to me that that decision was made in order to allow future Mitch Rapp movies to pull from current US enemies and adversaries to give them a ‘ripped from the headline’ feeling. As Kyle Mills, the man who has continued to write the Mitch Rapp books, has pointed out, Vince never had the chance to write about ISIS. They didn’t exist yet. The threats change and the studios wanted to keep the stories current.
But even with all that, I was heartened after spending time on the set and talking to many of the actors, actresses, producers and director Michael Cuesta that they took this very seriously and had Vince on their mind the whole way through.
In London, I spent time with Michael Keaton, who is playing Stan Hurley. We sat for an hour and he mostly asked me all about Vince, taking in as much information as possible. I also had such a sweet moment with Dylan O’Brien, who is our Mitch Rapp. He told me, with hand over heart, how honored he was to be playing Mitch Rapp and how important it was to him to do the role justice. He could not have been more genuine.
When this movie comes out in September, it will be the culmination of all Vince’s dreams. He only wanted these movies to finally be made. And he wanted them in order to introduce a wider audience to Mitch Rapp and to draw more people to his books so more people were able to understand the kind of person who Vince considered a hero and who Vince considered a patriot and to spread the hope and feeling that good always outlasts evil. I only wish he were here to take the bow he truly deserves.
