The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. Today’s subject is Dennis Lehane, who adapted and is showrunner of the James Keene non-fiction book Black Bird, which Apple TV+ premieres today, with Taron Egerton, Paul Walter Hauser and Ray Liotta starring.
With a ring for dialogue and tragic, tough working class characters, Lehane came out of Dorchester to become a bestselling novelist. Hollywood found his books and turned them into the Clint Eastwood-directed Mystic River, the Martin Scorsese-directed Shutter Island, and two adapted and directed by Ben Affleck, Gone, Baby, Gone and Live By Night. Lehane then became an accomplished screen and television writer himself. He adapted The Drop, the final film of James Gandolfini directed by Michael R. Roskam, who helms the six episodes of Black Bird. After cutting his teeth as a writer on the series The Wire, Lehane served in writing and producing categories on the series Boardwalk Empire, Bloodline, Mr. Mercedes and The Outsider. Many of his other books are being developed, including his masterwork, The Given Day. Watch him explain the films and TV that helped him find his mojo.
