Kevin Fox's "Until the Next Time"

Kevin Fox is a producer and writer for the Fox TV series Lie to Me, and his professional screenwriter credits include the film The Negotiator. He splits his time between coasts, living in both Los Angeles and New Jersey.

Here he dreamcasts a big screen adaptation of his debut novel, Until the Next Time:

Until the Next Time is actually comprised of two intertwined stories – that of Michael Corrigan, who is fleeing a murder charge in the United States and gets caught up in the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland in 1972 – and that of Sean Corrigan, his nephew, who goes back to Ireland twenty-five years later to solve the mystery surrounding his uncle’s death. Both men fall in love in Ireland, and both are at odds with the ‘Hard Men’ of the Provisional IRA.

Michael, who was a New York City Police Officer before fleeing The States, is a bit more worldly than Sean, but gets in over his head in Ireland and has an accessible vulnerability. There is no actor who I think would be more adept at playing Michael than Matt Damon, given the nuances of the role.

Sean is a bit more naïve, a modern-day Holden Caulfield, fumbling his way through life, likeable but frustrating in his lack of understanding of the world. Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Three Musketeers) can easily convey these qualities, and in spite of the fact that he is not from an Irish background, has the looks of the black Irish.

For Declan Murphy, our likeable IRA rogue, there is only one choice for me, the man who played Michael Collins himself, Liam Neeson. I believe we can still love Liam, as we need to still love Michael, even when he’s killing people.

There are two women that are crucial to the story, Kate, the love that Michael loses who I am sure that Cate Blanchett could embody and make the world fall in love with her as she has so many times before – and Anne, the foul-mouthed, sharp-edged girl-of-the-world that teaches Sean everything she knows. For Anne, Saoirse Ronan is the only actress that I could imagine.

There is one other character that haunts the book, in both stories: Jimmy Coonan, a sociopath that enjoys the bloodshed of the ‘Troubles’ while still managing to charm those around him. For the young Coonan, Cillian Murphy would be ideal, and I am sure that Colin Farrell would find himself at home in Coonan’s skin.

Learn more about the book and author at Kevin Fox's website.

The Page 69 Test: Until the Next Time.

--Marshal Zeringue