Timothy Jay Smith's "The Fourth Courier"

When Timothy Jay Smith quit an intriguing international career to become a full-time writer, he had a host of real life characters, places and events to inspire his stories. His first novel, Cooper’s Promise, in some ways is still the most autobiographical of his novels, though he was never an American deserter adrift in Africa. But he was in The Mining Pan bar and he did meet Lulay and he did stowaway on a barge that landed him in an African jail.

Now, in his third novel, The Fourth Courier, set in Poland in 1992, Smith looks back at the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, as witnessed through the eyes of an FBI Special Agent on assignment to stop a nuclear smuggling operation out of Russia. Smith’s newest book continues his style of page-turning thrillers steeped with colorful characters. Here are some of his thoughts on a big screen adaptation of The Fourth Courier:

The sense of scene is crucial to my writing. It’s how I think about a story. Before I start new work, I always have the opening and closing scenes in my head, and then I figure out what I need to get from start to finish.

I think it comes from growing up in a house where the television was never turned off. My sisters and I were even allowed to watch TV while doing homework if we kept our grades up. Sometimes I joke that canned laughter was the soundtrack of my childhood. I haven’t owned a television for many years, but growing up with it exposed me to telling stories in scenes, and it’s why my readers often say they can see my stories as they read them.

For me, it’s not difficult to go between prose and screenplays. In fact, I use the process of adapting a novel to the screen as an editing tool. It helps me sharpen the novel’s dialogue and tighten the story.

It’s harder for me to cast my screenplays than to write them. (Thankfully there are casting directors.) Fresh Voices International had this to say about my adaptation of Cooper’s Promise:

“Cooper Chance is a complex character in the vein of classical leading men. If Humphrey Bogart were alive today, he’d be attracted to this role.”

I’m using that as inspiration for suggesting a classic all-star cast for The Fourth Courier:

Cary Grant as FBI Special Agent James (Jay) Porter, an altogether likable guy who’s whipsawed by a nasty custody battle for his two sons back home while fighting bad guys in Poland to avert a nuclear disaster.

Sidney Poitier as his sidekick, Kurt Crawford, a black gay CIA agent who uses both his race and sexuality in key ways to help break the case.

Audrey Hepburn as Lilka, Jay’s new love interest, a sensitive and vulnerable woman struggling to protect her son while surviving the new world order.

Michael York as Jay’s Polish counterpart, Detective Kulski, a devoted family man who’s determined to crack the case before a portable atomic bomb gets into the wrong hands.

Boris Karloff as Dr. Sergej Ustinov, a genius Russian physicist who’s been driven mad by what he was required to sacrifice as part of a genetics engineering project.

Joan Crawford as Basia Husarska, the Director of Poland’s Bureau of Organized Crime, ready to sell anything, including herself, to achieve her dreams.

Humphrey Bogart as General Dravko Mladic, a fervent Serbian nationalist with a mad plan to recreate a country that no longer exists.

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--Marshal Zeringue