As I’ve said many times, if you’re adapting “Blood Meridian” then you best not miss. Everyone 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 the author’s magnum opus.
John Hillcoat is set to direct the “Blood Meridian” movie adaptation, and judging by his Instagram posts, he’s now location scouting for the film. You can check out the latest image he posted, below this piece, and he quotes a passage from McCarthy’s iconic novel.
In June 2023, Hillcoat announced that he would be bringing “Blood Meridian” to the big screen, with McCarthy co-writing the screenplay. Sadly, the author passed away before he could put his stamp on the film. However, 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 John Logan (“Skyfall,” “The Aviator”) would write the screenplay, replacing McCarthy and using the author’s “guiding principles” throughout the writing process.
“Blood Meridian” is a horrifying read, but a necessary one. It’s a sprawling exploration of violence and depravity in the American West. Scalpings, sexual assaults, and pedophilia show up. 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.
Some have succeeded in adapting other McCarthy novels for the screen — the most notable example would be Joel and Ethan Coen’s “No Country For Old Men.” Hillcoat’s adaptation of “The Road” falls somewhere in the middle. If you’re going to adapt “Blood Meridian,” then you need a trusted filmmaker. It needs to be in safe hands. It’s too sacred. Is Hillcoat the man for the job?
It’s now been 13 years since "The Grandmaster,” and it doesn’t sound like Wong Kar-wai will be making another film in the near future. His future seems to be on the small screen.