A B'Con Conversation

Of course, many conversations at B'con, but possibly the best was with a cab driver. I saw he had a stack of Harlen Coben books on his passenger seat, so I told him Coebn was at the conference, and he said he had Coben's signature, but hadn't met the man (I assume he got a signed book at one of the bookstores in town). Then he mentioned that his absolute favorite authors weren't at the conference Lee Child among them.

So I said the little I know of Lee (we've met a couple of times, but he'd be perfectly within his rights to not recall, the meetings were so fleeting). And I mentioned that Jack Reacher was destined for the big screen. The driver was happy to hear it and was about to specualte upon who should play Reacher when I told him Tom Cruise had the role (I'm pretty sure that's true). He reacted with some vehemence which is not such a great thing from a cabby.

"He's too short! He's not believable in that role. You need someone bigger, you need someone people can believe is crazy enough to do what Reacher does!"

I agreed that Tom Cruise might not work well for the role except for those who haven't read the books (which is not a small number).

"Nick Nolte!" the cabby said. "Him I would believe. He's big and he's crazy. You see him on the screen and you believe he can blow things up if you mess with him!"

I guess I'd have to agree except that Nolte is a bit long in the tooth for the role, I think.

"Or Gerard Depardieu!" the cabby continued. "Big, and I believe him. Much better actor than Tom Cruise."

True. I pointed out the accent (I couldn't tell what type accent my cabby had, but it was pronounced). He agreed, but pointed out the crazy factor was there: "You don't let me go to the bathroom? I piss on your plane..."

The rest of the ride (and it was fairly short) the cabby made an impassioned plea for Nick Nolte to play Jack Reacher. Not that I have that kind of sway...