Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505080022
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: R.D. HELDENFELS KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The NBC movie, based on a 1987 novel by the popular doctor-author, will premiere at 9 p.m. Monday (on WSLS-Channel 10). Nicollette Sheridan stars as a field worker for the Centers for Disease Control who tries to contain and explain a series of outbreaks of a swift and deadly virus in U.S. cities. Her former ``Knots Landing'' co-star, William Devane, plays her lover and mentor.
The movie streamlines and modifies Cook's thriller, which actually is called ``Outbreak,'' also the name of a current Dustin Hoffman theatrical film about a runaway virus.
While Cook acknowledges you cannot copyright a book title, he did feel he had some proprietary hold on the name, especially since he thought ``whoever wrote the [`Outbreak'] screenplay had also read my book.''
Adding to his worries was the Harrison Ford big-screener ``The Fugitive,'' which ``had a lot of disturbing similarities to another one of my novels, `Harmful Intent.''' But before Cook determined what action to take, the movie studio, Warner Bros., offered to compensate the author for the use of the ``Outbreak'' title.
``I turned it down,'' Cook said in a telephone interview from his home on Florida's Gulf Coast. ``I said I would much prefer that, if they wanted to make movies based on my ideas, why not come to me directly?''
Cook trusts that Warner Bros. will do so. As for the TV movie, the ``Virus'' title was one Cook had considered for the novel (and the title of the German edition translates to ``virus,'' he said).
Besides, the TV movie, Cook said, ``is better than `Outbreak' even though they had 10 times the budget.''
Pleased with NBC's presentations of his novels (``Mortal Fear'' aired last year, and versions of ``Terminal'' and ``Acceptable Risk'' are in the works), Cook is not an author who expects absolute adherence to his print vision on the screen.
``What I like to see is that the issue from the book is maintained, and that there is still a main character you created and can recognize,'' he said. ``And I'm still a doctor, so I don't want to go into a hospital and listen to my colleagues' derision.''
``Virus'' qualified, he said. But the ``Outbreak'' movie ``did not pretend to adhere to any scientific principles. It was an action movie, with a lot of helicopters and whatnot.''
Not that Cook always is pleased with what is made of his books. ``Coma'' - adapted and directed by Michael Crichton, also an M.D. - ``came out very well.'' But ``Sphinx,'' Cook's only nonmedical book, was made into a movie that left Cook ``appalled. I was asked to help publicize it, and I refused.''
Through it all, though, he's tapped into a growing public interest in medical issues; his novel ``Fatal Cure'' even caught the eye of U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, who asked for copies for every member of Congress and President Clinton.
``When I was a young resident, I saw these momentous changes coming, that medicine as we know it was going to change dramatically and the public needed to know about it,'' Cook said. ``And it's not that difficult to understand the issues, although medical organizations want it to seem that'' it is difficult.
While Cook's villains can be doctors, his heroes are as well, and that taps into a public and personal need. The public wants to believe there are good doctors.
And Cook himself says his favorite medical series is ``Ben Casey,'' the 1961-66 ABC drama.
``Ben Casey was an obviously intelligent individual who put medicine ahead of everyone and everything,'' Cook said.
``He was not going to brook inadequacies, and he was the patients' advocate. ... If you want to pick a hero, you're going to pick that one.''
by CNB