Had Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island been released in October as originally planned, perhaps FIU-grad Dennis Lehane would have had a third movie based on one of his novels up for an Academy Award.
His novel Mystic River was adapted by Clint Eastwood into a six-time nominated film. Gone, Baby, Gone, another movie based on one of his novels, scored a nomination for supporting actress Amy Ryan. Of course, there's always the 2011 awards.
Shutter Island, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, is based on Lehane's 2003 novel of the same name in which two U.S. Marshals investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane on a remote island. Lehane served as an executive producer.
Lehane wrote the novel just two years after completing a master's degree in creative writing at Florida International University in 2001. He also attended Eckerd University in St. Petersburg, and has gone on to teach at Harvard.
Riptide last caught up with Lehane when he was in town for the Miami Book Fair.