Latest news with #CarlHiaasen
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bad Monkey EP Bill Lawrence Offers Season 2 Update, Confirms ‘Razor Girl' Adaptation On Hold in Favor of New Story With Same Cast
Eight months after Bad Monkey's Season 1 finale, and six months after the Vince Vaughn-led detective comedy was renewed at Apple TV+, executive producer Bill Lawrence tells TVLine that writing on Season 2 is nearly complete, and cameras will officially start rolling this fall. 'They're almost done in the writers' room,' the EP says. 'We already had to shoot a scene from Season 2 [in Florida, since production is] moving to California, and that starts production in earnest towards the end of September.' (In other words, don't expect a release date any sooner than 2026.) More from TVLine Zach Braff: Scrubs Revival Will Capture Same 'Humor and Heart,' Show How JD Has Been 'Beaten Down by the System' Shrinking Boss Bill Lawrence Tees Up Reunion With His 'Hero' Michael J. Fox, Shares Favorite Spin City Memory Shrinking EP Tees Up Brett Goldstein and Cobie Smulders' Returns, Michael J. Fox and Jeff Daniels' Season 3 Arcs As for the premise, Lawrence confirms that, while they fully intend to adapt the second Andrew Yancy-centric novel, 'Razor Girl,' for a future season, Season 2 will tell a wholly original story, with input from author Carl Hiaasen. ''Razor Girl' is a great novel for people who want to read it, but it's kind of a break from the characters of the first [book],' Lawrence explains, 'and we wanted to have some of the characters from the first season more front and center in the second' — including Natalie Martinez's Rosa. '[Season 2 is] an original story, but we're all Carl Hiaasen aficionados — and, also, Carl consults on the show and has been helping us a ton.' Vaughn stars as the aforementioned Andrew Yancy, a police detective who in Season 1 investigated a bizarre crime in the Florida Keys while on suspension from the force. Martinez co-starred as coroner Rosa, who emerged as a love interest for Yancy, with Rob Delaney and Meredith Hagner playing married scammers Nick and Eve Stripling. The ensemble also included Ronald Peet as Neville, John Ortiz as Ro, Jodie Turner-Smith as Gracie (aka the Dragon Queen) and Michelle Monaghan as Bonnie. Bad Monkey wrapped Season 1 in October. The finale found Yancy and Rosa agreeing to part ways, and Yancy's friend Ro tempting him to look into another case. Its freshman run was based on Hiaasen's 2013 novel, 'Bad Monkey,' while 'Razor Girl' was published in 2016. Ted Lasso Season 4: Everything We Know View List Best of TVLine 'Missing' Shows, Found! Get the Latest on Ahsoka, Monarch, P-Valley, Sugar, Anansi Boys and 25+ Others Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?) The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More
Toronto Star
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
New crime novels feature a locked-room mystery, a Scarborough stabbing and a Jan. 6 insurrectionist
Fever Beach Carl Hiaasen Alfred A. Knopf, 384 pages, $39.99 It's a weird time in American politics, which means it's a perfect time for Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen to plumb the satirical depths of corruption and malfeasance in his home state. His last novel, 2020's 'Squeeze Me,' suffered from a subplot that attempted to satirize the once-and-current occupant of the White House, a Falstaffian spray-tanned figure so outrageous as to be almost impervious to satire. For 'Fever Beach,' Hiaasen wisely steers clear of POTUS and his inept administration, preferring instead to focus on wanton corruption at a lower level. 'Fever Beach,' by Carl Hiaasen, Alfred A. Knopf, $34.99. The new novel begins with a meet-cute on an airplane between Twilly Spree and Viva Morales. Twilly is a stock Hiaasen character: an independently wealthy Florida do-gooder who spends his time making life miserable for folks who litter, antagonize the local wildlife or otherwise cause environmental or social havoc. Viva's job is administering the foundation of a couple of rich right-wing octogenarians whose fundraising operates as a money-laundering front to finance the campaign of far-right (and profoundly stupid) congressman Clure Boyette, in hot water with his obstreperous father over a scandal involving an underage prostitute named Galaxy. Add in Viva's landlord — a Jan. 6 insurrectionist named Dale Figgo who heads the Strokers for Freedom (a white nationalist militia whose name is a rebuke to the Proud Boys' insistence on refraining from masturbation) — and his cohort, the violent and reckless Jonas Onus, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Hiaasen caper. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Big Bad Wool: A Sheep Detective Mystery Leonie Swann; translated by Amy Bojang Soho Crime, 384 pages, $38.95 Twenty years ago, German-born author Leonie Swann debuted one of the most delightful detective teams in genre history: a flock of sheep on the trail of the person responsible for killing their shepherd with a spade through the chest. After a two-decade absence, Miss Maple, Othello, Mopple the Whale, and the other woolly sleuths are back on the case, this time on behalf of their new herder, Rebecca, the daughter of the early book's victim. 'Big Bad Wool,' by Leonie Swann, Soho Crime, $38.95. Rebecca, her intrusive Mum, and the sheep are overwintering in the lee of a French chateau where there are rumours of a marauding Garou — a werewolf — that is responsible for mutilating deer in the nearby woods. Among other strange occurrences, Rebecca's red clothing is found torn to pieces and some sheep go missing — and soon enough there's a dead human for the flock, in the uncomfortable company of a group of local goats, to deal with. 'Big Bad Wool' is a charming romp, whose pleasure comes largely from the ironic distance between the sheep's understanding of the world and that of the people who surround them. ('The humans in the stories did plenty of ridiculous things. Spring cleaning, revenge and diets.') Their enthusiasm and excitement results in prose that is a bit too reliant on exclamation points, and some of the more heavy-handed puns (like the sheep's insistence on 'woolpower') seem forced, but this is nevertheless a fun variation on the traditional country cosy. Detective Aunty Uzma Jalaluddin HarperCollins, 336 pages, $25.99 Romance novelist Uzma Jalaluddin takes a turn into mystery with this new book about amateur sleuth Kausar Khan. A widow in her late 50s, Kausar returns to Toronto from North Bay to help her daughter, Sana, who has been accused of stabbing her landlord to death in her Scarborough mall boutique. The police — including Sana's old flame, Ilyas — are convinced Sana is the prime suspect, but Kausar is determined to prove her daughter innocent. 'Detective Aunty,' by Uzma Jalaluddin, HarperCollins, $25.99. Her investigation involves a couple of competing developers, both of whom want to purchase the land on which the mall stands, along with members of the dead man's family and fellow shopkeepers. On the domestic front, Kausar finds herself concerned with Sana's deteriorating marriage to her husband, Hamza, and her teenage granddaughter's sullenness and mysterious nighttime disappearances. Jalaluddin does a good job integrating the various elements of her plot, and the familial relationships are nicely calibrated. The momentum is impeded, however, by a preponderance of clichés ('Playing devil's advocate, Kausar asked …'; 'Kausar's blood ran cold') and a tendency to hold the reader's hand by defining every easily Googleable Urdu word or greeting too programmatically. More attention to the writing on the line level would have helped move this one along. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The Labyrinth House Murders Yukito Ayatsuji; translated by Ho-Ling Wong Pushkin Vertigo, 272 pages, $24.95 Yukito Ayatsuji's clever postmodern locked-room mystery was first published in Japanese in 2009; it appears for the first time in English translation, which is good news for genre fans. 'The Labyrinth House Murders,' by Yukito Ayatsuji, Pushkin Vertigo, $24.95. Ayatsuji's narrative is framed by Shimada, a mystery aficionado, who is presented with a novelization about murders that took place at the home of famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro, found dead by his own hand soon after the manuscript opens. Miyagaki has left a bizarre challenge for the writers gathered at his Byzantine Labyrinth House: each must write a story featuring a murder, and the victim must be the writer him- or herself. The winning author, as adjudicated by a group of critics also convened at Labyrinth House, will inherit Miyagaki's sizable fortune. As the writers compete for the reward, bodies start falling in real life and Ayatsuji has a grand time playing metafictional games with his readers, challenging them to figure out who the culprit is in the context of a story that owes more than a small debt to Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None.' But Ayatsuji does Christie one better; it is only once the afterword, which closes the framed narrative, has unfolded that the reader fully understands how cleverly the author has conceived his multi-layered fictional trap.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carl Hiaasen's 'Fever Beach' lampoons far-right extremism and Florida politics
Author Carl Hiaasen joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book 'Fever Beach,' which lampoons white supremacy, far-right extremism, dark money, billionaires, and our polarized culture, with Florida as the story's cultural backdrop.
Washington Post
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
From Florida's finest writers, some sunshine for our times
Between them, Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen are authors or co-authors of more than 70 books,with many millions of copies sold. Their works have been adapted into movies, TV shows and plays. Yet their latest offerings — a memoir by Barry, another novel by Hiaasen — feel especially timely. This matched set of Florida's finest writers comes at our fraught, conflicted times with confidence and clear eyes.
CBS News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Novelist Carl Hiaasen pokes fun at Florida's unique issues in new book
The pews of Coral Gables Congressional Church weren't filled with worshippers on Wednesday evening, but with devoted readers. They came to see Florida's sharpest satirist, Carl Hiaasen, whose newest novel "Fever Beach" continues his 40-year tradition of poking fun at Florida's unique issues. When asked what makes this city different from anywhere else, Hiaasen didn't hold back. "It's got a glorious history of corruption going back to the late 1930s, 1940s," he explained. "I think it attracts those folks as well as it attracts people for the climate. The climate comes first, and the sort of predatory class of humans comes next. It's a multiplier effect on the weirdness." Hiaasen's books are filled with Florida's wildest stories. His novel "Bad Monkey" recently jumped from page to screen as an Apple TV+ series shot on location in the Florida Keys. "It is always like, 'Oh God, I hope they don't screw it up'," Hiaasen admitted about the adaptation. "I was very pleasantly surprised with 'Bad Monkey' and Vince Vaughn. I thought they did a great job with that character." When asked if there's a bit of himself in Vaughn's character. particularly the "smart-ass part," Hiaasen laughed and agreed, "Oh yeah, definitely." New book inspired by real life incident "Fever Beach" hits close to home. Hiaasen revealed he got the idea after finding antisemitic flyers in his own neighborhood. In classic Hiaasen style, he channeled his outrage into satire. "When I see something as sick as that, I always think of somebody's behind this and wouldn't it be fun to imagine their lives in a novel and, and also they get what they deserve," Hiaasen said. "That's the other thing that's very selfish about writing novels, the bad guys in my case get exactly what they deserve, but it's usually done poetically and very tastefully. It's not just gore." Having evolved from a beat reporter to a celebrated novelist, Hiaasen has built a special relationship with his Florida readers over the decades. Florida fans just get it "There's nothing like a Florida crowd because they get it," Hiaasen said . "You don't have to explain a single joke. You say one word and they start laughing because they know exactly what you're talking about." His fans enthusiastically agree. "He writes about real things with such a sense of humor and irony. It's just real life," Linda Kroner said. "I think it's his ability to capture the nation's shortcomings through his political humor and satire. I just think he's really good at laughing at society, and also he's a local, so he gets it," Raj Tawney said. "Fever Beach" is available wherever books are sold. After completing his 11-city book tour, Hiaasen plans to return to Florida, where he'll get back on the water and return to his beloved fly fishing.
