it down to a kid's perspective. As a result, there is more street language and street action, and I think that's probably a good thing." Posner said that he decided to write the play after he heard a radio interview with Lopez and the responses; Posner recalled that "[o]ne caller would say it was brilliant, and another would say he [Lopez] didn't understand anything at all." After having read the novel, he decided that it would become his next project. Posner traveled to North Philadelphia to talk to community leaders and residents on several occasions while he was writing the play. In 1997 he said "I don't pretend to be anything but a total outsider in that neighborhood. I'm a somewhat more comfortable and somewhat more informed outsider now." Steve Lopez had no part in the play's production. According to Posner, he and Lopez met on several occasions while Posner was adapting the play. Posner offered for Lopez to be a consultant, but Lopez said that he had too many commitments at the time. Posner said that Lopez had a "supportive attitude" and told him "I wrote the novel; you write the play." Lopez said that Posner told him that the play would probably have a different focus on the novel. Posner did not restrict casting of Gabriel and Ofelia Santoro according to their races in the novel. He said "I concluded the story was universal enough that it wasn't hooked into the Latino experience. I looked for the best combination of actors I could find to play the kid and the mother." Ultimately two African-Americans were cast as those two characters. Plans for a film version On one occasion staff members of Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones allied to option Third and Indiana for a film version; Oprah's group wanted a "happy ending." Oprah's option evaporated. Jones's found another group of investors who said they raised money for a film version and never executed any plans. In 2003 Tom Bradford, a then-35-year-old Center City resident, said that he would begin plans to make a film version of Third and Indiana. Reception Judith Wynne said that Third and Indiana had often been compared to Clockers. Wynne said that "Mr. Lopez's book doesn't match ‘’Clockers ‘ panoramic scope or its intense preoccupation with the social forces that drive the illicit drug ‘executive’ and his sales crew of street kids. Nevertheless, ‘Third