September 14, 2002
The Mirror
Laughing all the way to the Banks
by Craig Mcgill

LATEST NOVEL SNAPPED UP FOR MOVIE: Actor Dougray will star after buying rights

HOLLYWOOD actor Dougray Scott has snapped up the rights to a new book by fellow Scot Iain Banks just days after its long-awaited release.

The movie star plans to appear in the £4million film - Dead Air - about a controversial DJ who takes up with a gangster's wife.

And for Fife-based Banks, 48, it's a dream come true.

He said: "Dougray is a good choice for the role. If he does it that'll be fine by me."

Banks burst on to an unsuspecting book public in 1984 with The Wasp Factory, the tale of a confused young man who turns to murder.

Since then, he has notched up a number of successes, including The Crow Road - which was filmed for TV - The Bridge and Complicity, which was made into a successful film.

He has also written gripping science fiction titles including Consider Phlebas, Excession and Inversions, under the name Iain M Banks.

A BBC poll saw him voted the fifth greatest writer of all time, after Shakespeare, Austen, Orwell and Dickens.

When he first hit the big time, Banks was dubbed the Scottish Bard of Depravity, a title he says he has passed on to Irvine Welsh. But his new book, which features some graphic moments of sex and violence, could see the title return.

Dead Air stormed to the top of the book charts on pre-sales alone and is set to earn the author another small fortune to add to his £250,000-a-year income.

Banks, who has admitted he only usually works three months a year, rattled his new novel off in just six weeks.

He said: "I was doing 4,000 words a day instead of my usual 2,000."

But what does he do with all his spare time?

"I drive fast cars and eat curries.

"I suppose with this lifestyle I can be called a champagne socialist, but I am a pinko liberal.

"As I've got older and richer, I can now admit I've become a champagne socialist but I prefer to be called a vintage champagne socialist."

And Banks admitted politics have influenced his latest novel.

He said: "Dead Air is an angry book. I think it was the election of George W Bush, who you could call a cretin, that did it.

"You just knew that whatever came after the September 11 attacks, it was only going to get worse.

"You weren't going to get people saying, 'let's be compassionate and understanding, let's see what the real problem actually is'.

"People in the US genuinely seem to think that the attacks happened because other people were jealous of them.

"The anger in Dead Air came because I realised just how stupid people can be."

Dead Air has been seen as a departure for Banks because of its ending. He said: "It's quite different in style for me."

"When I was writing I wasn't sure if there would be happy ending or not and it wasn't until I got to the very last chapter that I decided which way it would go.

"That is a change for me as I normally have it all sorted out in my head before I start.

"Some people think I always do sad endings but I don't because if you did that it would be bloody boring.

"You need to keep the reader on his toes and by giving a mix of sad and happy ending you achieve that.

"Someone once said that my work is very realistic in that there's always a sad ending but real life does have some happy endings as well."

Fans who enjoyed Dead Air and now want some more Banks are in for a wait.

He said: "It's two years before the next book and that will be a sci-fi one, so the next "normal" one will be 2006.

"I know it seems like semi-retirement but it's a pace I can enjoy life at. And life is there for living after all."

Dead Air, priced £16.99, is now available.

©Trinity Mirror Plc 2002