Familiar 'Player' back in game
Tolkin's sequel to be released ini September
Well, maybe a little.
The novelist and screenwriter behind "The Player" has brought back Griffin Mill for a sequel to the infamous Hollywood send-up. Out in September from Grove Press, "Return of the Player" revisits the satiric territory mined for the original tome and the Robert Altman pic built from it.
Readers will know quickly they're in for a more successful -- but no less jaded -- studio exec: "Griffin Mill was broke, he was down to his last six million dollars," the book begins.
A lot is different about the biz since "The Player" rippled through Hollywood, and Tolkin doesn't pull punches.
"The biggest change is that everyone talks about TV the way they once talked about movies," he says from the set of an ABC miniseries he's shooting in Vancouver. "Something has happened in the movies -- they became restrictive and stupid and overthought. Character has migrated to television."
Tolkin hasn't totally stayed away from the movies, writing the 2002 drama "Changing Lanes."
So given Hollywood's sequel frenzy, would he pen "The Player 2?"
"When I wrote "The Player' I was trying to get out of Hollywood, and for my sins I didn't. This is a novel."
But then, Griffin-like, he allows himself an out. "I don't know. Maybe it could be a movie."
