Word: benchleys
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First novels seldom attract financial interest from Hollywood, but when they do, as in the case of Peter Benchley's Jaws or Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, the selling points tend to be strong characters and a plot long on tension and surprises. That's a fair description of Christina Schwarz's Drowning Ruth (Doubleday; 338 pages; $23.95), which probably explains why, even before its publication, Miramax bought the screen rights for director Wes Craven. Readers should not wait for the film version, though, because this unusually deft and assured first novel conveys a good deal more than thrills...
...opened the unlocked ground-floor door to Holworthy, and we carried everything to the top landing. A brass plaque on my door listed former residents. I recognized only Robert Benchley...
Still, Relic Hunter is a masterpiece compared with Peter Benchley's Amazon, an adventure show starring former model Carol Alt and created by Benchley, who wrote Jaws. Not only is the series slow moving and badly produced, it doesn't show much skin. Instead of having fun with a story about a land of beautiful giant women, Amazon has six passengers of a crashed plane wandering aimlessly in the South American jungle. One would think the women's clothes would be shredded and useless after the first week, but somehow they always appear dry-cleaned...
...when these women enter the Amazon, they get wet only up to the waist. It's like a whole show of nothing but lifeguard rescues. "One of the challenges we face is to keep the historical and anthropological interest alive while also having beautiful women in jeopardy," explains Benchley. How about you just find deeper rivers, Pete...
Known for the novels and screenplays that have spawned such movies as Jaws and the TV series Peter Benchley's Amazon, the author has narrated dozens of films on ocean conservation. Join TIME.com to talk to Peter Benchley on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m. E.T. at chat.yahoo.com/time