Bartle Bull, the bluebood author, just finished the fourth and final volume of the African adventures of Anton Rider and optioned the novels to producer René Bastian for a TV mini-series.
“Before I signed the deal, I went to Kingston, NY, and watched René shooting his new Sundance film, ‘Cold in July,’ with Sam Shepard and Don Johnson,” Bull told me.
The books — “The White Rhino Hotel,” “A Café on the Nile,” “The Devil’s Oasis” and, now, “We’ll Meet Again” — start at the end of World War I.
“The name Rider comes from Rider Haggard, the author of ‘King Solomon’s Mines,’ the first great African novel. Rider Haggard was a friend of my British grandfather,” Bull said.
“My own father served in the Coldstream Guards in WWII in Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia. The actual White Rhino Hotel was founded in Kenya in 1909 by Lord Cranworth, my uncle’s father-in-law. It was these old family connections that got me interested in Africa in the first place.”
One character, a randy and clever dwarf, would be a perfect role for “Game of Thrones” actor Peter Dinklage.