This Book Is so Violent Even Ridley Scott Couldn't Adapt it

Although Cormac McCarthy won his Pulitzer Prize for The Road and became famous after the Coens' film No Country for Old Men, it is the novel Blood Meridian, that is rightly considered to be the masterpiece of this living classic of American literature.

The plot of Bloody Meridian revolves around an unnamed teenage boy, referred to in the book as the Kid, who has joined a real-life and rather well-known Glanton gang, members of which were hunting for Indian scalps.

Thus begins their journey, filled with a record amount of vividly described violence.

Many people have tried to adapt Bloody Meridian at different times. But the most serious attempts were made by three filmmakers.

All three never got the project off the ground. And all three ended up making movies based on other works by Cormac.

First, McCarthy's friend Tommy Lee Jones bought the film rights in the late 90s. Tommy was thrilled by the novel and by the vivid and memorable images that would appear on the screen in new colours.

The Men in Black star was confident that adaptation would turn out to be great, but it was not possible to find a common language with the studios and start filming.

Later, Tommy Lee not only starred in No Country for Old Men, but also directed a wonderful adaptation of Cormac's play, The Sunset Limited.

After Jones, the Scotts took over. Sir Ridley Scott wanted to direct Meridian, and by then the film rights had been acquired by Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin.

Known for his tenacity and difficult nature, Ridley was determined to make the movie the way it should be made, not the way it would benefit the studio.

Although Rudin was not ready to embark on a big, expensive project that could end up with not only an R rating, but the almost forgotten X rating.

In the end, the project was never made and Ridley Scott moved on to another, much smaller work of Cormac's – The Counselor.

The next attempt to adapt the book came from none other than James Franco. He wanted to adapt the book so badly that even offered Scott Rudin to finance the movie out of his own pocket. Didn't work, either.

James was also forced to switch to McCarthy's smaller work. Franco made a low-budget but worthy adaptation of Child of God.

Obviously, sooner or later, the novel will be adapted. In Hollywood, almost everything from Cormac's pen has been made into a movie, so a movie based on his magnum opus is only a matter of time.

It remains to be seen who will be the lucky one to make the project through from start to finish.