An Interview with Michael Connelly, Co-Writer of the Audible Original ‘The Safe Man’

Key Art from ‘The Safe Man’ Courtesy of Audible.

Michael Connelly is a New York Times Bestselling Author that has captivated audiences everywhere with his thrilling detective and legal novels, several of which have been adapted into television shows on Prime Video, such as Bosch and Bosch: Legacy. His current project, however, is the Audible Original, The Safe Man, based upon a short story that Michael wrote, and that he co-wrote with Terrill Lee Lankford, and we had the distinct honor of sitting down with Michael to discuss this incredible new adaptation of a story that means a great deal to him. 

John Betancourt: What inspired The Safe Man to begin with?
 
Michael Connelly: I'll try to be brief, but it's somewhat tied into something that happened to me. In this story, it's about a house that's built on an island that was dredged from a bay in Tampa Bay, and I lived in a house like that, around the year 2000, I moved into a house like that. And the house had, oddly had a safe that was built into the floor, and it was locked. And this was an old house even by Florida standards, it was an old house, it was something like almost 100 years old. And it just kind of scared me that we, you know, we did some renovations on the house, a lot of people had been in and out of that house, and they would look and see the safe and it was locked. And I just, I'm a storyteller. And my imagination kind of ran wild about what would happen if we had like an intruder who said, “open the safe.” And he's like holding a gun to my head or something. And I could not open the safe. So, I had it drilled, I had the safe, drilled and permanently left unlocked because I really didn't have use for a safe in the floor. And that just from there, it kind of made me think about a story like that. And from that came, I got this request to write a short story based on what I have, not based on, but that is not in the genre or in the lane that you're used to traveling. You know, I'm known for detective stories. So, I decided I'm going to write… I love Stephen King's books. And I’m gonna try and go into Stephen King's lane here for a minute, you know, I'm sure that won't be welcomed by the Stephen King people, but I'm gonna give it a shot. And with short stories, you can really experiment, do whatever you want to do. And so, I wrote The Safe Man.
 
And then I was very happy with that story. And I always thought it had legs. In other words that could be delivered in another way if I ever got the opportunity. And so then, you know, many years go by I think I wrote that more than 10 or 15 years ago. And one of the people that work for me and my company on the television side, along with my fresh from film school daughter said like, “we want to try to make something out of that story,” because my daughter was really into that kind of storytelling. And so, we decided to make an audio drama out of it. Because again, I'm not known for this kind of stuff. So, it's not like I could walk into Hollywood and say, “Hey, how about making a TV show about this ghost story I wrote.” And so, we went to the audio drama route, I have a relationship with Audible from doing a true crime podcast with them a couple of years ago. And that was a great experience. And you know, I know Audible is the platform, if you want to do something like this. This is the place to take it to and having already been in a partnership with them. It was kind of a no brainer. So, here we are.
 
John Betancourt: What kinds of challenges came forth in expanding such a concise story into something so grand in scope?
 
Michael Connelly: Well, I mean, you got to keep in mind that, first of all, the as you said, the short story was concise, and it… It had to go further. And as I said before, I've always thought this story could go further. So maybe about 10 years ago, a friend of mine who's a writer as well, Terrill Lee Lankford. He liked the story as well. So, we wrote a screenplay and never did anything with it. I mean, I can't say it was rejected all over town because no one ever saw it. It just didn't -- it almost felt like an exercise. And we said we'd come back to it and make it better. And then when Theresa Snyder and Callie Connelly came and said, “this, this could be something that could be an audio drama.” I got it right away, and it still needed expanding even from that screenplay. And so, it's a different kind of storytelling. You know, it's serialized storytelling and so you're at you're very aware of needing many cliffhangers. Big cliffhangers, scares, sound design is the most important part of this. You know, we at first, it was the idea was that Titus Welliver, who I have relationship with from the Amazon Prime TV show, would direct this but we then we realized we needed sound design to be so important that we brought in Mark Philips as a co-director, I did the expanding of the, what was a movie script into an eight part series. And it kind of went from there. It all kind of fell in really, really quickly and really well, once we decided let's do this.
 
John Betancourt: Now since you’ve mentioned that this story had legs, is this is a story that you always wanted to revisit and wanted to really build into something this riveting? Or was it just an opportunity that presented itself.
 
Michael Connelly: That's a little bit of both. And by the way, thanks for using that word riveting. You know, if you have one word that you want to have said about a story like this, that's it. I mean, because you're really in the story delivery business of making people want to keep going, you know “what happens next” that that's the key to storytelling on any level. So, it seems to have worked with you. And that's great. But it was the one ghost story I've ever written. And now I want to write more, I want to write a sequel to this. But I mean, yeah, it's always been there as like, “Hey, that was a good story.” And yes, it was in a collection of short stories. But that's probably the smallest, you know, audience that you could have for something you've written. And, you know, I want to hit all the bases as a storyteller, you know, I wanted to hit an audio drama, I have some TV shows, I've had some movies, I write books, it all starts with books. But you know, I want to hit every, every way of delivering storytelling, because it's just fun to do things that are new. And so, this was like the perfect project to kinda, to find that script. And in fact, I had to do a little detective story, to even find a script, because I kept finding different levels of unfinished work.
 
And, and finally, I had to go to Terrill Lee Lankford, my co-writer on it, to find the last best version of this and then we then I took it and expanded it from there. But you know, it's tough, you know, this, I'll be honest, we saw this as an opportunity that if this does well, and that's where I come back to riveting. If this is riveting, and it does well on audio, then on Audible, then, you know, Audible is part of the synchronicity of storytelling in our, in our world right now, they have another delivery system that is huge, called Amazon Prime. And this could be, I don't want to say like a backdoor in, but this could be a way in to taking this story to another level and have it, you know, made into a television show. And so those things are all of mind, as you're going down this path, but you know, you got to pay attention and be really focused on the the step you are on, on that path. And so, you have to make the best, most riveting story you can make. As far as an audio drama goes before anything else would even be considered. So, you know, you got to keep your eyes on the ball as it bounces down the path.
 
John Betancourt: Now something that was a delightful surprise, was the sheer fact that this story is grounded in some deep fears about parenthood and fears regarding the safety of our children. What went into the decision to add that into the story?
 
Michael Connelly: I mean, you're right, I mean, it's like, you know, I'm a parent of one child. I came from a huge family where I had six brothers and sisters. And so, I went to the opposite path. But I realized that when you only have one kid, you have more worries, you know, you got one child. And so, there's, you know, this might be bad to say, but I'm kind of tapping into the fears of, of all parents. And you know, that's a universal thing. That's what you see. And Stephen King, who's one of the inspirations for this kind of storytelling for me, and they're the masters, that, that do that so well. And I just wanted to take that as a starting point, but then get into these larger questions that I never get into on my detective stories, where my legal thrillers are just not a place for that. But it's not like, I'm only one dimensional that I think about crime or something I think about, you know, like everyone does, where do we come from and where do we end up going? And so, this idea of the different realms of the eternal and the mortal realms and what passes in between, you know, it's just, to me it was just so delicious to delve into I'm, you know, I'm 67 years old. And I've created a reputation or whatever you want to call it for being the guy who writes the legal thrillers and the detective novels. But you know, at the end of the day, there are larger questions that I like to think about. And this became a way for me to explore that.
 
John Betancourt: What does it mean for you, for this story to have the legs and longevity it does.
 
Michael Connelly: Well, it's, you know, as a guy who does this for a living, it's pretty fantastic to know that something I wrote a long time ago, I don't want to say it was a throwaway. But as I think I said before short stories, they have a very limited audience. And to think that was one of my better ideas. And it's been sitting in a book that not many people saw a long time ago, let's give it new life. And maybe there could be something that, that leads to something else, you know, can lead to television, or can lead to a sequel. And these are all things that you know, it's like your stories are your children. And you know, if you get if you get a chance to see them grow up and do something different, it's really enticing and fulfilling when it happens. I mean, I love, I love this, I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish. And you know, I'm gonna get the credit for it. You're interviewing me, you're not interviewing Mark Phillips, who did the sound design, which is just I think, you know, without it, you wouldn't be using the word riveting. I'll tell you that. I mean, what he did on this was really cool.
 
John Betancourt: So, with it being out, what are you most excited for audiences to experience when they tune in, without spoilers of course.
 
Michael Connelly: Well, I mean, obviously It's like when you put out a book or a TV show, you want to see what the reaction is, and you hope a lot of people hear about it and get to it. And so, my big hope is that, again, this is a different way of delivering a story for me. So, it's a brave new world. Here I am, you know, almost 40 years into my career as a storyteller, but I haven't done this before. So, it's kind of the most exciting thing going for me at the moment.
 
John Betancourt: What did you enjoy the most about putting all of this together?
 
Michael Connelly: The end result. I mean, you know, I have this experience in a lot of ways. You know, I've sitting I'm sitting at a desk where I write most of my stuff. I got James M. Cain right there, you're probably wondering, who is that guy looking over my shoulder? And I got a Raymond Chandler. So, you know, this is my storytelling headquarters. And to see something, take it on its own life, you know, that goes out there. And as I say, I'm really excited about this new dimension of storytelling that I'm involved in now through Audible. And you know, I'm one of the best platforms to be doing that. So, the thing that that I liked, I like most about doing this, is when I see the end result of whether people jump on this and enjoy it, and we get feedback. I mean, that's, you know, you're talking to a guy -- any guy who writes books and makes TV shows has a pretty big creative ego who thinks that they're storytellers that should be seen by the masses heard by the masses. This is that point, where I want to see if people want to hear this story.
 
John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today, what are you most proud of when it comes this particular iteration of this project?
 
Michael Connelly: Well, you brought up parenting and so forth. You know, my daughter is a young person who was just fresh out of film school when she came to me and said, “Let's do this.” So, I'm really proud of what we have, how this took this step from being a short story, to being something that a lot of people are gonna get to listen to. And so that's what has been most interesting to me, to work with her on this. I mean, she's worked in the business now for few years. And I know she's good at what she does. And it's a different kind of storytelling than her old man is known for. But it's something I'm really proud of.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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