Mike Fleming

In my view, there hasn’t been a quality author more underrated than Don Winslow. He hooked me with The Winter of Frankie Machine and Power of the Dog, but various turns in turnaround hell on his movies has made him a well kept secret for close to two decades. While I think that Universal miscalculated by moving the Oliver Stone-directed Savages from its fall berth to last weekend on not enough screens (the films Ted and Magic Mike provided stiff competition in the counter-programming to blockbusters niche that the studio sought for Savages), Winslow’s novel Savages has just gotten back on The New York Times bestseller list, and so has The Kings of Cool, his recently released prequel to the audacious drug tale. The film Savages, which got strong reviews, has hung in this week, and the $45 million film’s big test comes over the weekend among stiff competition. Winslow’s got two other film projects in the works: he and Shane Salerno are adapting his novel Satori as a vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio, and Winslow is writing a script with The Town author Chuck Hogan that will be shopped by CAA and The Story Factory after it’s completed. Maybe soon I’ll be able to find Winslow’s earlier titles in bookstores.