Brian Garfield talks about adapting Butcher's Moon:
BG: Butcher's Moon, the book, was bought by 20th Century Fox. Charles Bronson had an estate across the Hudson River from Albany, and he'd agreed to do Butcher's Moon if it could be filmed in and around Albany so he could commute to work. Michael Winner had said he'd direct Butcher's Moon as his next project. These elements were all in place when Don recommended that Fox hire me to write the script; I'd just written the introduction for the book of Butcher's Moon, and my Death Wish was just then being filmed in New York with Bronson, directed by Michael Winner.
I was not a first-class screenwriter then. I don't remember feeling challenged by the "overstuffedness" of it. Don's sense of story structure was superb, and I'm sure my script must have followed the book—perhaps too closely, but I don't remember being confused or put off by the number of characters. I'd read most, perhaps all, of the previous Parker novels, and I do remember combining several characters and simplifying some of the off-screen back-story, but that didn't seem too challenging.
I probably turned in a serviceable second draft, but by then I think the subject had become moot. The producers had cooled, Bronson had cooled, and Winner had finished filming Death Wish—a movie that both Don and I, having seen it in screenings, disliked. It became a huge hit in the summer of '74, at a time when I was in Africa researching something else. I sort of understand the appeal of the movie—it had an excellent screenplay by Wendell Mayes—but I thought it was a hasty and indifferent job of filmmaking. I suppose Don and I both failed to hide our disappointment with the movie, so it's not too surprising that both Bronson and Winner walked away. Without them, I gather Fox had very little interest in pursuing the project.
Full interview:
