Cormac McCarthy writes first spec script The Counselor, a “disturbing & powerful” thriller

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

And the most exciting news of the new year goes to…

…The one and only Cormac McCarthy.

Deadline has broken a mighty surprising brief…that NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and THE ROAD author Cormac McCarthy (seen right) has completed his first ever screenplay, a spec-script called THE COUNSELOR. THE ROAD producers Nick Wechsler, Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz are reprising their collaborative roles and will oversee the making of the film.

Set the contemporary Southwest, The protagonist in The Counselor is a respected lawyer who thinks he can dip a toe in to the drug business without getting sucked down. It is a bad decision and he tries his best to survive it and get out of a desperate situation.

Here’s what Wechsler had to say about THE COUNSELOR:

“The spec falls smack in the middle of what everyone responds to with Cormac’s novels.”

Steve Schwartz added:

“Since McCarthy himself wrote the script, we get his own muscular prose directly, with its sexual obsessions. It’s a masculine world into which, unusually, two women intrude to play leading roles. McCarthy’s wit and humor in the dialogue make the nightmare even scarier. This may be one of McCarthy’s most disturbing and powerful works.”

Pretty damn pumped am I over this one. I still think NO COUNTRY is one of the best movies to be made in the last decade or so, and I’ve read BLOOD MERIDIAN and THE ROAD, so I have a pretty good idea of how THE COUNSELER might read. Cormac needs to get Clint to direct this sumbitch. Otherwise, I’m not sure who can equate with or surpass the Coen brothers. Do you?

Charlize, star of THE ROAD