Every Michael Connelly Film Adaptation
2022 is a great year for Michael Connelly fans! Both The Lincoln Lawyer and Bosch are getting new series adaptations. Of course, this isn’t the first time Michael Connelly’s works have been adapted for film or television! Here’s a quick and easy guide to every Michael Connelly film adaptation so that you can make sure you don’t miss out on a single one of them.
Blood Work (2002)
The first Michael Connelly film adaptation was the 2002 mystery thriller movie Blood Work, which adapted the 1998 Michael Connelly novel of the same name. Blood Work is the first novel in the Terry McCaleb series. Ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb had no idea he was about to come out of retirement when Graciella Rivers walks into his life. Graciella’s sister was brutally murdered, and she needs Terry’s help.
Blood Work was directed by Clint Eastwood. It also stars Clint Eastwood as Terry McCaleb, Jeff Daniels as Jasper “Buddy” Noone, Angelica Huston as Dr. Bonnie Fox, and Wanda de Jesús as Graciella Rivers. The film was released on August 9, 2002.
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The Lincoln Lawyer
The next adaptation of a Michael Connelly novel came in 2011, with the American legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, based on Connelly’s 2005 novel, the first in the author’s Micky Haller series. The book follows Mickey Haller, a criminal defense lawyer who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car. When Haller is hired to defend the son of a wealthy Los Angeles businesswoman, he discovers disturbing parallels between this case and one from his past.
The Lincoln Lawyer was directed by Brad Furman and written by John Romano. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller and also features Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillipe, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, and Michael Peña. The film was released on March 10, 2011.
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Bosch (2015)
Bosch is a TV series based on multiple novels in Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series. It started running in 2015 and ended in 2021 with its seventh season. The first season adapts The Concrete Blonde (Book 3), City of Bones (Book 8), and Echo Park (Book 12); season 2 is based on The Last Coyote (Book 4) and Trunk Music (Book 5); season 3 is based on The Black Echo (Book 1), A Darkness More than Night (Book 7), and The Drop (Book 15); season 4 is based on Angels Flight (Book 6) and Nine Dragons (Book 14); season 5 is based on Two Kinds of Truth (Book 20); season 6 is based on The Overlook (Book 13) and Dark Sacred Night (Book 21); and season 7 is based on The Burning Room (Book 17).
Bosch stars Titus Welliver as Los Angeles Police detective Harry Bosch. The series was developed by Eric Overmyer for Amazon. All 68 episodes of the detective drama are now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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The Lincoln Lawyer (2022)
A second adaptation entitled The Lincoln Lawyer premiered on Netflix on May 13, 2022. This series is actually an adaptation of Michael Connelly’s 2008 novel The Brass Verdict, the sequel to The Lincoln Lawyer. The series stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, along with Neve Campbell, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, and Christopher Gorham.
All 10 episodes premiered simultaneously on Netflix’s streaming service, and the series was renewed for a second season a month later, in June 2022. For season two, the show plans to adapt The First Witness, the fifth book in the Mickey Haller series. Unfortunately, there is no news yet on when we should expect the new series to premiere.
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Bosch: Legacy (2022)
Bosch: Legacy is a spin-off series of Amazon Prime’s Bosch, and it also premiered in May 2022. This season was adapted from the 19th book in the Harry Bosch series, The Wrong Side of Goodbye. Several actors from the original Bosch series reprise their roles in this spin-off, including Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch, as well as Mimi Rogers and Madison Lintz.
The first four episodes of the series premiered on May 6, 2022 on Amazon Freevee. The remaining episodes released weekly, two episodes at a time. Like The Lincoln Lawyer, Bosch: Legacy has already been renewed for a second season. There is no word yet when this season will be out or which Connelly novel will be adapted next.
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Emily Martin has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi. She’s a contributing editor at Book Riot and blogs/podcasts at Book Squad Goals.