University of Arizona instructor’s book to hit big screen with ‘Game of Thrones’ star
Jul 6, 2016, 1:32 PM
(Helen Sloane/HBO via AP)
(Helen Sloane/HBO via AP)
PHOENIX — A movie based on a true-crime book written by a University of Arizona instructor has begun filming with a “Game of Thrones” actress as one of the stars.
Joe Sharkey waited 25 years to see his book, “Above Suspicion,” finally become a motion picture.
Sharkey, who has worked for the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and the Wall Street Journal, is now a consultant for the developing movie.
The adjunct instructor of journalism told UANews that when filming in Kentucky finally began he thought, “OK, now it’s real. There’s film in the camera, and I have the crew call.”
Emilia Clarke, who stars in the popular “Game of Thrones” TV series as Daenerys Targaryen, will play Susan Smith, a drug addict who becomes an FBI informant.
Jack Huston, of “Boardwalk Empire” and “American Hustle,” will play the main character, Mark Putnam, an FBI agent gone astray.
In Sharkey’s true story, Putnam begins an affair with Smith and kills her in a fit of rage when she threatens to tell his wife and superiors that she is pregnant with his child.
Putnam confessed to the crime a year later and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was released in 2000 after serving 10 years.
“Deadly Greed”, “Lady Gold” and “Death Sentence,” three of Sharkey’s other true-crime books, are also in various stages of making their own appearances on the silver screen.
