Rollerball

Rollerball the movie was originally a short story written by William Harrison in the 70s called “Roller Ball Murder.”

The movie was made in 1975 and Harrison is credited as writing the screenplay, too.

The short story got published in Esquire and a director read it and eventually talked to Harrison to make “Rollerball” the movie.

There was a remake in the 2000’s but apparently it does not live up to James Cann’s version where he plays the character Johnathan E.

I ordered the old paperback off Amazon recently and sat down to read Roller Ball Murder. It is 20 pages and is done in 1st person present tense.

It’s creatively done with a certain sparseness and you can clearly see how the movie is way different, with more details, but after I read the short story it’s obvious why it was picked up as a film.

It’s genius.

The rest of Harrison’s stories are also done in 1st person and it feels like a lost treasure when I hold it in my hand and read them.

If you like reading origination stories of popular movies like I do you can order a copy on Amazon for yourself.

Next Blog Post:  Amazon owns everything so why not your TV, too?