PROVIDENCE, RI, March 1, (Agencies): Bad Blake, the protagonist of “Crazy Heart,” is a boozy, past-his-prime country star saddled with the indignity of playing backwater bowling alleys and opening for his former side man.
The character was breathed into life by actor Jeff Bridges in a performance up for an Academy Award next Sunday. But Bad was actually conceived more than 20 years ago by a doctoral student who wrote the novel that the movie was adapted from.
The film’s success, including strong reviews and three Oscar nominations, has brought “Crazy Heart” author Thomas Cobb — now an English professor at Rhode Island College — a sudden burst of fame following a career spent in relative anonymity.

The book originally was published in 1987 and sold 11,000 copies before being pulled from print after initial buzz died down. Now, it’s being reissued in paperback by publisher HarperCollins. Cobb said he’s most excited that the book will be available to a new generation of readers — and the perks that come with Hollywood success aren’t bad either.
“They fly me out first-class, I get picked up by a limousine, they put me in a great hotel, I have limousines at my beck and call,” Cobb said in an interview. “People pay attention to me in ways I’m not used to having attention paid.”
Cobb, an Arizona native with an abiding interest in outlaw country music, began working on the novel as his doctoral dissertation at the University of Houston. He modeled Bad’s physical characteristics and career off Hank Thompson, a 1950s country star, and sprinkled a little of himself into the character as well as his mentor, author Donald Barthelme.

The book opens with Bad on the back end of a once-successful career, an alcoholic who treks solo from gig to gig across the western US. He’s unhinged enough to wander offstage during a concert to vomit in a trash can, yet professional enough to come back and finish the performance.
But after he falls for music writer Jean Craddock, he tries with mixed success to get his life in order.
The novel was published to solid reviews but ultimately pulled from print. It was optioned multiple times, including by Chuck Barris of “The Gong Show” fame. But the projects never went anywhere, and Cobb continued teaching and writing ambivalent about whether his novel would ever hit the big screen.
Then came a call several years ago from Scott Cooper, an actor who grew up listening to bluegrass music in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Cooper initially wanted to make a movie on the life of country legend Merle Haggard, but had difficulty securing the rights.
He was given a copy of “Crazy Heart” by a friend, and found resonance in the novel’s themes of redemption.

“We all have second chances in life, and that regardless of our flaws — because we’re all flawed — we can really seek redemption and salvation,” said Cooper, who adapted the novel into a screenplay and directed it.
Bridges signed on as Bad Blake despite initial reluctance to participate. Robert Duvall, who’d appeared with Cooper in several films, was cast as a bar owner friend of Bad’s. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Jean, Bad’s love interest, a role for which she scored an Oscar nomination. Music producer T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham also have Oscar nominations for original music composed for the movie.
The film, shot in less than a month with a tight budget and a first-time director, stayed largely faithful to Cobb’s book but with critical differences. Where the film ends with Bad committed to sobriety and enjoying a sentimental final encounter with Jean, the book grimly concludes with the country star drunk in a ditch.

“Some things are more filmable than others, palatable than others, and I wanted the story to have a more redemptive ending than the novel,” Cooper explained.
Cobb said he loves the movie and is philosophical about the differences between the book and film, calling them separate works.
“When you option it, you essentially put it up for sale. There’s nothing in the contract that says they have to consult you, there’s nothing that says they have to give you any kind of approval of what’s going on,” Cobb said. “They could probably make hard-core porn out of it and you couldn’t say anything about it because you put it up for sale.”

Also:
LOS ANGELES: Angelina Jolie and Darren Aronofsky are in discussions to develop a big-screen adaptation of Ron Rash’s 2008 period tome “Serena: A Novel.’’
The project would be a starring vehicle for Jolie, who was last in theaters with 2008’s “Changeling.’’ Aronofsky (“The Wrestler’’) would direct.
Set in the rugged mountains of 1929 North Carolina, “Serena’’ follows a man named George Pemberton and his new bride, Serena, as they create a timber empire. Serena not only takes to the woods, but she also pushes her husband to commit more and more ruthless acts. When she learns she cannot bear a child, Serena sets out to murder the son her husband fathered illegitimately.

The project is quietly making the rounds in its search for financing. Work on the script by Chris Kyle (‘’The Weight of Water’’ and “K-19: The Widowmaker’’) is also needed before Jolie and Aronofsky can move forward.
Aronofsky, who just wrapped “Black Swan’’ for Fox Searchlight, is on the hunt for a new project. And he has shown that he is not afraid to go it alone to get a movie made — as he did with “The Wrestler.’’
Jolie remains one of the few actresses who can make or break a movie. It was her interest in “Salt’’ that got Sony to change the sex of its title character to make that picture, which opens July 23.
Jolie recently dropped out of “Wanted 2,’’ triggering reports that the thriller was dead. The sequel is alive, according to Universal insiders.
The actress, who is currently shooting “The Tourist’’ with Johnny Depp, has nothing lined up as a follow-up, though a movie based on the Patricia Cornwell character Kay Scarpetta is one of the stronger contenders on her to-do list.