How the Movies Spawned 'The First Assassin'

You’ve heard it said before: “The book is better than the movie.” But the movies helped me write my new book, The First Assassin.

The First Assassin is a historical thriller set primarily in Washington, D.C., at the start of the Civil War. Bestselling author Vince Flynn blurbs it on the front cover: “An excellent book–it’s like The Day of the Jackal set in 1861 Washington.”

The Day of the Jackal is a twofer: Both the book (by Frederick Forsyth) and the movie (the 1973 version) are excellent. But the book is still better. It’s super excellent.

Anyway, I started working on The First Assassin in 1996–more than 13 years ago. Yeah, that’s a long time. It was the project I kept setting aside when something more pressing came along, such as the birth of a child or a writing deadline that came with a guaranteed paycheck.

There were other challenges as well. I knew how I wanted the story to start and finish. Inventing the plot that would connect the opening pages to the conclusion was a different matter. One time, I wrote down every scene on an index card and spread them across a big table. I moved scenes around and invented new ones, trying to make chapters flow and events unfold in a logical and compelling progression.

Another time, I wanted to jump start my creative process. So I resorted to a trick that one of my English professors used in college when she hoped to spark a classroom discussion about an 18th-century play: What actors do you imagine on stage, performing these roles?

I went through my manuscript and tried to associate several of its main characters with well-known actors. Then I pinned their pictures on a corkboard next to my desk. For the mysterious hitman who stalks President Lincoln, I naturally thought of Edward Fox, the star of The Day of the Jackal. But I wanted someone less debonair. So I settled on Viggo Mortensen. Other actors with pictures on the corkboard included Halle Berry, Nell Carter, and Morgan Freeman. My wife would joke about the Halle Berry picture. Thank goodness she’s not a jealous person.

The First Assassin also has a femme fatale, though I never thought of an actress who seemed like a perfect fit for my character. I may have discovered one recently: Polly Walker, who played Atia of the Julii in “Rome,” the HBO series.

I also tacked up photos of historical figures with parts in The First Assassin: Lincoln, Gen. Winfield Scott, and Secretary of State William Seward. For the central hero, Col. Charles Rook, I used the picture of an actual Union officer, Charles Pomeroy Stone. Over time, however, I came to think of Rook as a good role for Tom Selleck. I’ve always liked Tom Selleck.

Did this technique work? Well, it didn’t exactly fail. Honesty forces me to report that it didn’t drive me toward completion as quickly as I had once hoped. It did influence the way I wrote, however. In that sense, it shaped the book.

Now I just need for someone to turn The First Assassin into a movie. The film rights are available. Does anybody know if Tom Selleck is looking for a project?