I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I was thinking it over and have come up with a list of my issues regarding a US movie adapation of Edge of Darkness – feel free to add to it in the comments:

1. Bob Peck is Dead: OK, that’s a bit unfair, but the man did “grief” like nobody else. Gibson just looks like either a sad or angry teddy bear. With wrinkles.
2. It’s being filmed in Boston: it may have eluded them, but that’s in America, guys.
3. Brutal Shotgun Murders Are Commonplace In Movies: enough said.
4. Intimacy of Grief will be Hard to Portray: post Sex-in-the-City one supposes that all American girls will have vibrators except where prohibited by law; that daddy might find it after you are dead, muse upon it for a moment or two and even sniff it hoping for a scent of you, will probably be considered embarrassing not intimate, especially if it’s one of those modern vibrators with dangly bits. And if it is not one, Emma looks like a repressed militant not a modern activist – see below.
5. Emma was a terrorist, sorry “terrist”: let’s be honest about this, she was. She hung out in some really dodgy company. She was specifically an eco-terrist which won’t down well in the land of the SUV. Did we mention this was being filmed in the USA? Variety now calls her an “activist” so we can see where they are taking the plot already…
6. Emma had a sodding great gun: Again with the USA thing. Craven (her dad) was a police officer, but round-about that time (mid 80s) the likelihood of his having used a firearm in anything other than prior military service was near zero. It’s still pretty slim today. That your British daughter has a pistol in her British bedside drawer is shocking. In America it’s considered a lifestyle choice.
7. It’s about the nuclear power industry: You know, the sort of thing now reigned-in and out of favour in the USA (did we mention it is being filmed in the USA?) so at worse Craven will go up against post-Enron Corporations and a small corrupt part of the Department of Energy, versus be considered a thread to British National Security.
8. It’s a Downer and Everybody Dies: Specifically, all the protagonists die. There is no vengance. There is almost no justice, except through Jedburgh who gets Grogan. The machine wins, but you knew it would, and the twist is that you realise the planet will eventually win. You realise how small and insignificant you, the viewer, are. Happy Hollywood Ending, not.

There are tons more: “Come Dancing” is long gone and probably replaced by “American Idol”, the CIA look bad but produce a hero who is only a hero because he bucks the system. Oh, and he drinks like a fish. If they want a big name for Jedburgh, they can maybe put 20 years on Philip Seymour Hoffman, but frankly I am not sure that’s wise. The character is supposed to have seen action of the “Cold War and Overthrow South American Governments” kind, not “Desert Storm”. He’s someone who would laugh at “Mission Accomplished”…

I really hope I am wrong. I am almost hoping Martin Cambpell reads this. Seeing as the idea of taking it to the big screen has been hanging around since 2002, I am rather worried about it being another V for Vendetta as a friend put it .

Sigh.