The counselor - Cormac McCarthy

In early 2012 it was announced that Cormac McCarthy had written an original screenplay - news which provoked huge excitement, a swift deal and the appointment of Ridley Scott to direct.

But this is no ordinary screenplay. This is a work of extraordinary imagination which draws on many of the themes of McCarthy's work as well as taking it to new dark places. It is also written with great descriptive passages counteracting the dialogue, so the reader is given the full experience of the McCarthy prose.

It is the story of a lawyer, the Counselor, a man who is so seduced by the desire to get rich, to impress his fiance Laura, that he becomes involved in a drug-smuggling venture that quickly takes him way out of his depth. His contacts in this are the mysterious and probably corrupt Reiner and the seductive Malkina, so exotic her pets of choice are two cheetahs. As the action crosses the Mexican border, things become darker, more violent and more sexually disturbing than the Counselor has ever imagined.

The film starring Michael Fassbender, Penlope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt will go on release in autumn 2013.