John Logan to Adapt Cormac McCarthy's ‘Blood Meridian'; John Hillcoat Set to Direct

If you’re adapting “Blood Meridian” then you best not miss. Everybody knows that. The late, great Cormac McCarthy’s masterfully violent 1985 novel is a tough read but also an essential American novel. It’s surely McCarthy’s magnum opus.

There have been multiple attempts to adapt this 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 succeeded.

Last June, John Hillcoat, who also directed an adaptation of McCarthy’s “The Road” in 2009, announced that he would be bringing ‘Meridian’ to the big screen. THR is reporting that John Logan will be writing the screenplay, which was originally supposed to be penned by McCarthy before he, sadly, passed away.

McCarthy will be getting a posthumous executive producing credit.

Logan is one of the best and most sought-out screenwriters in Hollywood. His credits include “Gladiator,” “The Aviator,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Skyfall”, so it does look as though “Blood Merdian” might be in very good hands.

Some have succeeded in adapting McCarthy novels for the screen (“No Country For Old Men”) and others haven’t (“All the Pretty Horses”). Hillcoat’s adaptation of “The Road” falls somewhere in the middle. It was a good movie, but you also felt like Hillcoat didn’t quite knock it out of the park.

“Blood Meridian” is a horrifying read, but a necessary one. It’s a sprawling exploration of violence and depravity in the American West, tackling the 1850s human scalping trade. Scalpings, sexual assaults, and pedophilia and much more show up in the story.

A few weeks ago, I reported that Jeff Nichols was going to adapt McCarthy’s final two novels — “Stella Maris” and “The Passenger” — for the big screen. He’s currently writing them. The plan is for him to also direct both scripts.