'25th Hour' traveled fast track to screen

David Benioff wrote the novel "The 25th Hour" first, then came the screenplay. But the book was on track to be a movie well before it was published.

So how does that happen? "Your agent just sends (the galley proofs) out," Benioff said during a telephone interview from Southern California. "It's actually becoming more and more common that that happens, sometimes long before publication."

Benioff said he even knows of one case where a writer sold movie rights on the basis of a book's one-page outline. "It's getting further and further from the actual publication date."

It was actor Toby Maguire who initially acquired the rights to "The 25th Hour," with an eye toward starring in it. But then "Spider- Man" came along and, though Maguire stayed on as a producer, Edward Norton became the star and Spike Lee the director.

The "25th Hour," which has just been released on DVD (Touchstone, 2002; R for violence, language, sex; $29.99), is a rough, gritty story of a drug-dealer who has been busted and has to report the next day to begin his prison term. During his final 24 hours of freedom, he tries to make amends with friends and loved ones, break off his drug-dealing ties and also find out who turned him in.

This is very much a New York movie, with a subtext that deals with 9/11. As you might suspect, Benioff is a native New Yorker -- but before selling the book, he was teaching at the University of California at Irvine, where he had gone to graduate school. "The master's program automatically gives you a teaching job."

Benioff was also able to adapt his own novel as a screenplay, "which is unusual, but I wanted to do it. It was part of the deal. And it was a good deal for (the studio) too, because they would pay more for someone from the writer's guild, and I came cheap, but it was more money than I'd ever seen for writing anything."

After he writing the first draft, "I got a call saying, 'Spike Lee wants to meet with you.' It was mindboggling, and the interesting thing was that he actually felt the script wasn't faithful enough to novel. One of first things he said was, 'I really like book, but you took out a few of my favorite scenes.' "

Benioff said that although the book is fiction, people often ask if it's based on people he has known. "I've known people who've gone to prison, but there are no characters based on real people. I was a teacher in a high school in Brooklyn, so there are certain students who influenced (a character who is a high school teen). I know people who worked in bars, there are elements from my life. But no one is based on a real-life person."

And what would be his advice to aspiring novelists or screenwriters? "Not to expect first thing you'll write will sell.

"In general -- there are exceptions -- but most of the people I know are working writers who've been struggling for at least 10 years."

He added that while "The 25th Hour" landed on the fast-track to become a movie even before publication, it took six months of rejection slips from all the major publishing houses before it was on track to be a book.

Benioff also said that it's helpful to have "a really good, honest reader who isn't afraid to tell you the hard truth -- this section is not working, that character is too flat.

"I have a few people like that I can show my writing too, and they're unflinchingly honest with me."

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