|
Q You did extensive interviews with LAPD cops to write Hollywood Station. Post-Rodney King, how has the department changed? How have the cops changed? Do the aftereffects of that incident linger today?
A Hollywood Station deals in dramatic terms with the smothering effects of the federal and local oversight of LAPD post-Rodney King. The actions of a handful of cops and the zealotry of cop critics have all but emasculated the best big-city police department in America. But I believe the proactive LAPD spirit will eventually prevail.
Q You have some great female characters in the book, including Budgie, the single mom who has to take a break during patrol to use her breast pump. How did you get inside the head of the female cops? Their experience must in many ways be different from your own.
A I have already been told that the women characters in the book are the most memorable. I get into their heads by extensive interviews over food and drink. Men need on average two and a half drinks to get talking, women only need to smell the cork. And women, on average, are more verbal and eager to reveal their emotions. Macho males are reluctant to talk about “feelings” and other sissy stuff.
Q After a 20-year break, what prompted you to return to writing about the LAPD?
A It’s not so much that I took a break from the LAPD. I merely expanded my reach. During the two decades that I did not write about the LAPD, I did write seven fiction and nonfiction books, one of which took me to Pennsylvania and the other to the Midlands of England, so I wasn’t loafing around.
Q In many circles, you are considered the “father of the modern cop novel.” How did your writing break from the cop novels that came before yours?
A Prior to my work, the police procedural concentrated on how the cop acts on the job. I flipped it and concentrated on how the job acts on the cop.
Q The incredibly successful TV producer David E. Kelley has purchased the television rights to Hollywood Station, and you’re going to write the pilot episode with him. Do you enjoy the process of turning a novel into a screenplay or teleplay?
A I do enjoy the process of film adaptation, whether I’m adapting my own work or someone else’s. In fact, it’s the only kind of writing that is fun, something like doing a jigsaw puzzle, moving the pieces, making them fit, and most importantly, knowing what to delete and doing it ruthlessly. That part hurts a bit when it is your own work you’re adapting.
Q You produced the film version of your nonfiction book The Onion Field, which depicted the true story of a kidnapping of two LAPD officers. The film helped launch the careers of James Woods and Ted Danson. What was that experience like?
A When we made The Onion Field film, it was done with sheer guts and no brains. We mortgaged our house and raised money from friends, including cops. Even our fledgling director, Harold Becker, invested heavily.
When we had 2.3 million dollars, we made the film without any studio or distributor being involved.
That means if we had failed, we would have had the world’s most expensive home movie. I don’t recommend anyone doing this. We got away with it.
Having said that, it was a miraculous time. Everyone connected with it knew that we were making perhaps the only absolutely true and faithful docudrama ever made. The most important words from my script were shown on the screen after opening titles: “This is a true story.” We never compromised the truth.
Q Why do you think the cop story is so enduring? Do you think pop culture at the moment depicts a realistic version of cops? A vilified version? A deified version? Or all of the above?
A The cop story is enduring because people have a fundamental need for order and security, especially in a world so full of disorder, where our security seems so tenuous.
The very latest cop films depict a gruesomely violent and often corrupt cop culture that does not and cannot exist, given the level of police oversight everywhere – especially at LAPD – and the number of trial lawyers who lie in wait for opportunities to sue the police and the jurisdictions who hire them.
It’s much less dramatic to depict police work accurately.
These films create their own police forces no matter what badge they pin on their actors and let them operate as though there were not criminal or civil laws binding them. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed