The late, great Cormac McCarthy’s masterfully violent 1985 novel “Blood Meridian” is a tough read but also an essential American novel. It’s surely the author’s best work. John Hillcoat is set to direct the “Blood Meridian” movie adaptation and he’s reportedly location scouting for the film. Acclaimed writer John Logan will adapt Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” novel into a feature film for director John Hillcoat. Hillcoat is also producing along with Keith Redmon for New Regency. Cormac McCarthy’s son, John Francis McCarthy, will serve as executive producer, while Cormac, who died in June 2023, will receive a posthumous executive producer credit.
In June 2023, Hillcoat announced that he would be bringing the “Blood Meridian” movie to the big screen, with McCarthy co-writing the screenplay. Sadly, the author passed away before he could put his stamp on the film. In a recent interview, Hillcoat mentioned how he and McCarthy had, over the course of a few years, “three- and five-hour lunches” brainstorming how the iconic novel would be turned into a film.
This brainstorming would almost “always lapse back to the logistics: dialogue, casting, the landscapes.” McCarthy died before he could contribute to the screenplay, but Hillcoat is now approaching the shape of the film “with years of notes,” and from “hours and hours of conversations.”
Last year, it was reported that Logan (“Skyfall,” “The Aviator”) would write the screenplay, replacing McCarthy and using the author’s “guiding principles” throughout the writing process. “It’s incredibly exciting to have John Logan on board,” John Francis said. “Very reassuring in the seemingly long list of good news concerning what was originally such an intimidating undertaking.”
. There have been multiple attempts to adapt the novel into a film: Tommy Lee Jones, Ridley Scott, Todd Field and even James Franco attempted to direct a film adaptation in the ‘90s and ‘00s, but none have managed to get it this far into the production process as Hillcoat has.
