Carl Hiaasen Talks About Turning 'Bad Ape' Into TV Series – Entertainment News (Trending Perfect)

When novelist Carl Hiaasen was asked to describe himself—is he eccentric? a warrior?—he replied, “Eccentric? Maybe not eccentric. No, I think that when you write satire, which I do, the satire always comes from a place of anger, of feeling unfair about things. Satire has a purpose.”

The raging author Carl Hiaasen has poured out his anger in more than 30 books. Now, one of his most satirical novels, “The Bad Monkey,” from 2013, has been adapted into an Apple TV+ series.

Sunday Morning spoke with Hiaasen, 71, in the Florida Keys, where “Bad Ape” was filmed. “It’s kind of weird, because you’re sitting in a room by yourself and writing the script by yourself,” he said on the set. “And you come here and there’s like 105 people on the set.”

Among those 105 is actor Vince Vaughn, who plays the good guy in “Bad Ape,” Detective Andrew Yancey. Yancey lives in a small house, and an ugly yellow mansion is being built next door, blocking his view. “It blocks the view of the sunset and everything,” Hiaasen says. “That’s what he lives for.”

Von Stahl showed how hideous the mansion was—a fake set. “The house from the front is awful,” he said, “but it’s really just a set. I think everyone is happy that it’s just a fake house and it won’t be here forever.”

One theme running through all of Hiaasen's writing is New Florida versus Old Florida, development versus nature. And not just bad monkeys, but bad neighbors.

In general, “Bad Monkey” is inspired by Hiaasen’s life in Florida. “Everywhere I went as a kid, whether I was hunting or fishing or critter hunting or whatever, everything was paved,” he says. “Now it’s all concrete. But I saw it all happening from a very early age, when I was six or seven. And I was angry then, and I still am!”

For 45 years, Hiaasen channeled his anger into newspaper writing as a reporter and columnist for the Miami Herald.

“You've been constantly criticizing the paving of roads in Florida,” Stahl said. “Do the novels seem like an extension of that?”

“I think it all comes from the same place,” Hiaasen said. “It’s the same fuel. I think you really have to care about where you’re writing about. You have to care about whether it’s going to be good.”

He said it's the “stunning beauty” of Florida that makes his characters act the way they do.

“Some of your characters talk about beauty as if they were in a church or a cathedral?” Stahl asked.

“Absolutely,” Hiaasen said. “For me, that’s what church is. It’s very spiritual. You just turn a corner in a mangrove swamp, and all of a sudden, you know, you see a beautiful bird in a tree or something. That’s it, you know? That’s when you’re reminded, like, ‘We can’t screw this up.’”

Hiaasen reveres Florida’s flora and fauna. But our species? Not quite that much! Just a few of the words he uses to describe his human characters: greedy, whore-loving, escaped convict, and “the skin on his face was like rice krispies.” “I remember that!” Hiaasen laughs. “You know, those words come to me when I’m driving. I have a low threshold of patience as a driver. I use them as a greeting to another driver… Then they come to mind. Then I say, ‘That’s so good, I’m going to put that in a book!’”

Hiaasen writes one book a year, but “Bad Monkey” is his first to be turned into a TV show. He’s happy about it, despite the failure of two feature films based on his novels, “Striptease” and “Hoot.”

“Do you understand why these films didn't do well?” Stahl asked.

“If I were offered a novel like mine, with subplots, I would have a very hard time adapting it,” Hiaasen said. “The cool thing about Bad Monkey is that it’s a series, and it can give you more backstories. You can do all sorts of things that you can’t do in a feature film.”

Another thing that's different about “Bad Monkey” is veteran TV producer Bill Lawrence, who also produced “Ted Lasso.” “I've been obsessed with Carl Hiaasen and his books since I was a kid,” Lawrence says.

He told us it was crazy to do this with a real live animal: “Every time we get to a point where you say, The monkey whistles or frowns, The monkey just smiles. And then he usually gives you a kiss on the hand. And you say, “You must be bad monkey!'”

The monkey wasn't the only problem on set; there was a local deer, the size of a golden retriever, stealing the crew's food! “Florida is the only place where endangered species line up at Dunkin' Donuts at sunset,” Hiaasen said.

Hiaasen didn’t go to Hollywood. In 2020, he wrote another novel, “Press Me,” about fat cats and snakes crawling around the grounds of a Palm Beach mansion that looks eerily like Mar-a-Lago. One of the characters, the villain, is a former president of the United States. “Do you think there’s a resemblance?” Hiaasen laughed.

Hiaasen co-wrote last year's song with his close friend and fellow hunter, the late Jimmy Buffet:

“Fish Porn” by Jimmy Buffett, Carl Hiaasen and Mac McAnally:

No matter what genre Carl Hiaasen works in, you can always expect a funny ending.

“I once got a letter from a reader saying, ‘I love your books about Florida. I’m moving there anyway!’” he laughed.

To watch the trailer for the movie “Bad Monkey” click on the video player below:

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Story produced by Richard Bodenhagen. Editor: Mike Levine.