Christian Slater, Miami, & the Mai Kai

BIG NEWS - I just returned from South Florida for location scouting with Christian Slater for his long-delayed but now fast-tracked film of my detective novel LOVE STORIES
ARE TOO VIOLENT FOR ME, for which I'm now contracted to co-write the screenplay. Much more in these blog entries linked below, including how and why this meeting/trip finally came about, our fishing expedition where we caught and released a Cuban night shark off the coast of Miami; riding the original "African Queen" in Key Largo; and my first visit to the Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale. I actually set a scene there in the script...

http://willthrillville.blogspot.com/2012/05/onward-christian-slater.html
&
http://willthrillville.blogspot.com/2012/06/stuff-dreams-are-made-of.html

Cheers & aloha.

Thanks for posting those pictures...looks like you had fun Will. I think there is a scene in Magic City that was filmed at the Mai Kai...your pictures helped me to confirm that. Best of luck to you on the screen writing...looking forward to following your "adventures in writing."

Thanks for the fun read and photos. Best wishes, Wendy

Mahalo!

Definitely tropical tiki weather down there - 87 degrees at night! - but a cool breeze at all times, like Hawaii's trade winds. Muggy and humid, but I kind of like that, grew up in Jersey. The dry arid heat of California is harder on me. I'm not a desert guy by nature.

Anyway, some more random shots below. The guy in the red shirt is Tiki Chris Pinto (author of "Murder on Tiki Island") and the gal with the big glasses is Cynthia Leiter, both of whom I only knew via Facebook, both of Fort Lauderdale. First one is a shot of Chris's own front porch, all tiki'd out.
I think you know who the "other" guy is...cheers.

fyi the original novel is being published soon by Gutter Books of Portland
http://www.gutterbooks.com/

I revised and modified the text somewhat for republication and added several Bay Area tiki references, including the Tonga Room and Trader Vic's Emeryville (circa 1994, when the movie is also set).

The movie is in the development stage, script and storyboards in circulation. Christian is successfully raising money and hoping to film in South Florida (where the story has been relocated) sometime this year.

Here is the new cover, though it may be somewhat modified before final publication this summer. Christian's image used with his permission. Aloha.