Production Underway for Film Adaptation of A Single Shot by Matthew F. Jones

Here's some news that surprised us a bit. Production has begun on the film adaptation of Matthew F. Jones's thriller A Single Shot. The news itself isn't surprising, just the timing.

We first heard about the adaptation in 2010, and then there was a news items from mid-2011 that production had begun in Vancouver. But apparently that was a false start.

Jones has adapted his own book for the film screenplay, which is being directed by David M. Rosenthal. A Single Shot was originally published in 1996 by Farrar Straus & Giroux and recently reissued by Mulholland Books. Here's the synopsis from the book:

After the loss of his family farm, John Moon is a desperate man. A master hunter, his ability to poach game in-season or out is the only thing that stands between him and the soup kitchen line. Until Moon trespasses on the wrong land, hears a rustle in the brush, and fires a single fateful shot.

Following the bloody trail, he comes upon a shocking scene: an illegal, deep woods campground filled with drugs, bundles of cash and the body of a dead young woman, killed by Moon's stray bullet.

Faced with an ultimate dilemma, Moon has to make a choice: does he take the money and ignore his responsibility for the girl's death? Or confess?

But before he has a chance to decide, Moon finds himself on the run, pursued by those who think the money is theirs. Men who don't care about right and wrong and who want only one thing from John Moon: his body, face down in a ditch.

Starring Sam Rockwell as John Moon and co-starring Jason Isaacs and Willilam H. Macy, the film is expected to be released during 2013.

(Related article: Deadline.)