Though ‘Dutch’ drew more than a couple of appreciative chuckles from hometown fans at Borders in Birmingham, just 5 or 10 minutes from his house, the biggest laughs came after he read a few excerpts and took questions for about half an hour.
“Get your Djiboutis signed here,” a store host shouted. “Oh, that does sound odd,” she added after amused reactions.
The whole event this evening, his second and last planned meet-and-greet for this book, had a cozy, village feel as the man rode riffs about copywriting, filmmaking, grammar, Raylan, Kathryn Bigelow and writing discipline. Reinforcing that mood, the store distributed cupcakes to celebrate his 85th birthday five days earlier.
Selected bits:
* Greg wanted to go to Djibouti for research, “but that really wasn’t necessary—we had plenty of videos and other stuff available. It’s really not a nice place.”
* Bigelow, who once showed up unannounced at his house in a limo (while in the Detroit area) to say she liked his work, got an early copy of the manuscript. “I haven’t heard anything back. That’s usually what happens.” He talked around answering a question about whether the Dara Barr character is inspired by Bigelow, as Janet Maslin suggests in an Oct. 10 New York Times review.
* The AMC cable channel is considering a series based on Mr. Paradise and another book he couldn’t recall. “When the Women Come Out to Dance would make a good series, too. . . . That’s the way to go now—cable TV, not the studios.”
* No new season start date yet for Justified, “though I should know in a week or two.”
* “I was an adman in the ‘60s, and we didn’t walk around with drinks or smoke as much as those guys” on Mad Men, which no one else had brought up.