Riding with John Wayne; A Novel

by Aaron Latham

• ISBN13: 9780743269797
• ISBN10: 0743269799
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-25
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

In his latest triumphant novel, Aaron Latham pits Texas guts against Hollywood glitz when a modern-day cowboy turned screenwriter dusts off his Stetson in order to solve a murder.Chick Goodnight has arrived in Hollywood to write a screenplay about his great-great-great-ever-so-great grandfather Jimmy Goodnight -- the legend who more or less invented the Texas cowboy during the 1870s (and who was featured in Latham'sCode of the WestandThe Cowboy with the Tiffany Gun).As the film's director -- smart and beautiful Hollywood veteran Jamie Stone -- shows Chick how to write for the screen, he finds his quaint Western-inspired code of ethics challenged by an industry in which casting departments pimp for their producers and overzealous method actors feel obliged to seduce their costars. But culture shock becomes the least of Chick's worries when his cousin, a young aspiring actress, dies under suspicious circumstances. Shortly, Chick -- taking a few heroic pages from his own script -- is forced to investigate before someone else meets his maker.As Chick's misadventures take him from Hollywood to Texas and back again, Aaron Latham treats us to a bravura piece in which art imitates life imitating art.

Excerpts

Chapter 1 We walk across a parking lot filled with a large herd of fancy cars. A mammoth Mercedes SUV is parked beside a miniature Mercedes convertible with the top down. They look like a car cow and car calf. "This is where the western set used to be," says JAMIE STONE, whose ancestors were named Stein. "They tore it down and turned it into a parking lot when they stopped making westerns." "Maybe it's time they rebuilt it," I say, "now that they're making westerns again." "Chick, forget the plural," she says. "They're making western. And we're lucky they're doing even one. I can't believe you talked them into it. Or wrote them into it. Or roped them into it." "Lucky for me I didn't know enough not to write one. God loves a dumb country boy, you know." "Dumb like a coyote." "You know, I miss that old western set." "You never even saw it." "I miss it anyhow." I miss lots of things I've never seen. I miss my great-great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather Jimmy Goodnight, who will be the hero of our movie. And I miss my great-great-great-ever-so-great-grandmother Revelie Goodnight, who will be our heroine. Jimmy grew up on the Texas frontier, but Revelie was Boston-bred. According to the script and history, Jimmy Goodnight invented ranching in West Texas, and so you could say he invented the cowboy as well. He even promulgated what he called the "Code of the West." After his death, Revelie cured Texas tick fever and raised their son, my great-great-great-grandfather Percy Young "Pyg" Goodnight, who carried a silver gun made by Tiffany. I miss Jimmy Goodnight's great Home Ranch, which has long since been broken up and sold off. I miss Jimmy and Revelie and Pyg and the Home Ranch and the real Old West and the unreal Old West sets in Hollywood. I miss the values. So I am going to try to bring all that back to life as a movie. I'm glad I'm making my first movie with Jamie Stone, who is about five seven, blond, green-eyed, and -- as many have told her -- too pretty to be a director. It isn't just that I like most of the movies she has directed. It is more that I feel totally relaxed with her. When I am with her, the constant tremor in my hands doesn't stop, but at least it slows down. I wonder why I feel so comfortable with Jamie. And I feel comfortable with no one -- man, woman, or child. It has been that way ever since I met Jamie that first time, at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel, for breakfast. Even before the eggs arrived, I knew she was going to direct my movie. Of course, she said she was going to direct a movie based on a recent bestseller, but I somehow knew she wouldn't. I didn't try to sell myself or my movie. I knew I didn't have to. I even praised the bestseller and asked lots of questions about how she was going to translate it to the screen. But I already knew for sure that that movie had better start looking for another director. How had I known? I wish I knew. After our breakfast together, Jamie went home, finished reading my book, and -- that very afternoon -- formally committed to directing my movie. The book, a biography of my family's founding father, Old Goodnight, was something I managed to write while holding down a job as a reporter forThe Washington Post. I worked on it on my days off and whenever the city editor wasn't looking. I was surprised when Hollywood started calling. What piqued the moviemakers' interest -- it turned out -- were the parallels between Jimmy Goodnight's story and the legend of King Arthur. Something that had always fascinated me, too. When Paramount bought the book, I quit my job at thePostin order to try to write the screenplay, which was a lot harder than I expected. When I showed the results of my efforts to Jamie, she probably had second thoughts about agreeing to be my director. Anyway, that was the day she informed me that most screenplays are