Mary Doria Russell’s Movie Deal
Doc Holliday is heading to the movies again in a new feature starring Jeremy Renner, reports Deadline Hollywood.
Film rights to Mary Doria Russell’s Doc (PRH/Ballantine) and Epitaph: A Novel Of The O.K. Corral (HC/Ecco), were sold to independent studio Palmister Media, which most recently released Collateral Beauty starring Will Smith.
“We are excited to re-introduce this classic American character to a whole new audience by chronicling Doc Holliday’s incredible transformation from Average Joe dentist to a man who Wyatt Earp called the ‘nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun [he] ever knew’,” said Renner and a co-producer in a joint statement. Another producer for the project said, “Jeremy Renner as Doc Holliday…f*cking awesome.”
Renner will join the ranks of Victor Mature, Kirk Douglas, Stacey Keach, Dennis Quaid, and Val Kilmer, all of whom have played the dentist turned gunfighter in previous films.
Doc won the ALA Reading List award in 2012 and Epitaph was named one of LJ‘s best historical fiction novels of 2015. Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles called Doc “fantastic” and wrote “If I had a six-shooter (and didn’t work in the District), I’d be firing it off in celebration of Doc … I’m in awe of how confidently Russell rides through this familiar territory, takes control and remakes all its rich heroism and tragedy.” The paper later called Epitaph “a remarkable accomplishment.”
Librarian Nancy Pearl discussed those novels with Russell in an interview in 2015.