toward blacks and homosexuals. And his detective team anticipates the feminist movement by enlisting a tough-minded career woman who's unafraid to pack a pistol and spout a bit of scatological English." Adaptations Film Carr told the Orange County Register he had envisioned a film adaptation of his work while writing the story. "I was always aware that if done correctly, this could end up being a great movie. I grew up with the movies. I've written scripts. Movies are something I've always loved," he said. Carr thought of Emma Thompson to play Sara, and Anthony Hopkins or Sam Neill to play Kreizler. Before the book was published, film producer Scott Rudin purchased the film rights to the novel for $500,000. In June 1993, Paramount Pictures bought the film rights to the novel for $750,000. In January 1995, The River Wild director Curtis Hanson was reported to have been in the process of final negotiations with Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures to direct The Alienist. By May 1995, Hanson was signed on as the film's director. Variety reported that the film's producers planned for filming to start in Spring 1995, with an intended Christmas release date in mind. Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang adapted the book for film. Scouts for the film visited Philadelphia in May 1995 to consider location shooting in the city. Film scouts for The Alienist were particularly interested in Philadelphia's Academy of Music, Eastern State Penitentiary, and Waterworks. Paramount Pictures was concerned with the film's budget, which reportedly was almost $50 million. By 1997, multiple script drafts from three writers brought costs to approximately $2 million. After delays in production, Paramount Pictures told the group behind the film they had two months to set the project up at another studio. In a review of Carr's sequel The Angel of Darkness, Malcolm L. Johnson of The Hartford Courant cited concerns over how to depict the mutilation of the murdered prostitutes in the film, writing: "Questions about how to treat this gruesome element has perhaps delayed the film of The Alienist." When in a 1999 online chat with fans, set up by Time and Yahoo!, Carr was asked if there were film plans for The Alienist or The Angel of Darkness, he responded: "Only 'The Alienist,' and the attempts have been so bad that I have not yet sold 'Angel' to the movies. What happened was that a