Words and Wine with David Benioff

April 8, 12:56 PMSeattle Fine Arts ExaminerSteve Clare

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Accomplished opera singers dream of being pop stars. Professional football players long to hit the links with Tiger Woods. Hollywood screenwriters wish they'd earned their ducats and made their names as novelists.

One of them has:  David Benioff.

He broke into movies, adapting his own novel, 25th HOUR, for Spike Lee. Starring Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman and  Barry Pepper, the movie may be Spike's finest, um, hour, the morally harrowing tale of a dealer's last day of freedom. Benioff's STAY was executed by Marc (MONSTER'S BALL) Forster; the psychological thriller featuring Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling and Naomi Watts, blends Ambrose Bierce with M. Night Shyamalan creating a dazzling if confounding cinematic dream-state. Benioff then re-teamed with Forster to tackle the big-screen transfer of Khaled Hosseini 's novel, THE KITE RUNNER, an impressive effort which convincingly captured the book's local flavor and large-scale melodrama. The screenwriter's most recent accomplishment, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, already owns the dubious distinction of having been quite publicly pirated a month before its release. (Word-of-mouth from those darned downloaders, however, is exuberant. Fanboys are loving them some Benioff!)

This Saturday, The Warren Report will present a special screening of 25th HOUR at The Henry Art Gallery, followed by my in-depth interview with Mr. Benioff. We'll discuss the craft and commerce of screenwriting, explore the luxuries the business provides and, possibly, the liberties taken with TROY.

For those who'd prefer a more intimate experience, and greater focus on Mr. Benioff's novels, please, please purchase tickets now for Friday's edition of Words & Wine, produced by Kim Ricketts Book Events. For just $45, you'll enjoy my hour-long moderated chat with the author, multiple opportunities to mingle with the author, you'll receive a (signed!) copy of his second novel CITY OF THIEVES, and all the delicious food and fabulous wine you can graciously consume — courtesy of Seastar and Chateau St. Michelle, respectively. With any luck, the writer's wife, Amanda Peet, may partake as well. (A host can dream, can't he?)

Don't miss these chances to hobnob with one of Hollywood's hottest screenwriters who is also, quite proudly, one of America's finest novelists.