When Ben and Chon’s wealthy, slacker girlfriend O (short for Ophelia), is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel known for decapitating those who cross them, Ben’s nonviolent stance is called into question.ĬNN recently spoke with Winslow, who shares screenwriting credit for the film with Shane Salerno and director Stone, about adapting his work, how he crafted a story as violent and haze-filled as “Savages,” and the creation of the infamous O.ĬNN: In “Savages” you play with format a lot – you take some trajectories into writing it like a screenplay. Something that potent presumably wouldn’t stay within the confines of Southern California for long, and Ben and Chon become so successful that the drug business south of the border takes notice.

Winslow writes in his novel that the two developed a plant so dope it “could almost get up, walk around, find a lighter and fire itself up.” The story follows two Laguna Beach-based best friends and entrepreneurial businessmen: Chon, a trained Navy SEAL and war vet, and Ben, an idealistic Berkeley grad with a brilliance for botany. And the precipitating story, the Helen of Troy story reminded me so much of a real life incident that had taken place in New England and the crime world when I was - when I was a kid, that it struck me, the parallel struck me and I thought, I wonder if I could do that, if I could make a fully modern crime novel that would stand on its own as a contemporary crime novel, but also echo those stories and themes from the classics.In the trailer for Friday’s “Savages,” a potential moviegoer can glean that the film involves: 1) a kidnapping plot 2) marijuana and 3) a pair of successful pot growers, portrayed by Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson, who share a girlfriend in Blake Lively’s “O.”īut what some watching may not know is that Oliver Stone’s latest is based on the acclaimed 2010 novel of the same name from writer Don Winslow. Where did this idea come from to combine crime and the classics?ĭon Winslow, Author, 'City on Fire': Well, it's been 27 years ago, I was reading the Iliad, as one does. So Don, your new book, is this Iliad saga telling the story of these warring crime families in 1980s Providence, Rhode Island.

It's a gritty gangster saga inspired by the mobsters of his Rhode Island hometown, and Winslow says by Homer's Iliad, we spoke this past week as he was traveling on his book tour about why this latest novel is his last, as Winslow shifts his focus from writing to activism. His latest is City On Fire, the first in a trilogy. Novelist Don Winslow has authored more than 20 acclaimed international bestsellers, including The Border, Savages, and The Cartel. And now to our weekend spotlight, this week I spoke to famed crime novelist and activist Don Winslow, about why his new series of books will be his last and what's in store for his next chapter.

Savages don winslow book