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Almost immediately after Ricochet River was published, Hollywood came calling. At first a production company merely wanted the option of being able to make the movie if they decided to. For the privilege, they paid author Robin Cody a small sum each year.

“That went on for years,” says Cody. “I gave up hope it would ever be a movie. People told me that Hollywood types take out options on lots and lots of stuff.”

But eventually, the option was picked up—rumor has it that actress Goldie Hawn wanted the script as a vehicle for her daughter, Kate Hudson, who did play a lead role in the 2001 movie.

“They called up and said, ‘We’re going to do it,’” says Cody. “As a courtesy they showed me the script, then disregarded everything I said about it.”

The movie was shot in Oregon with Cody and Oregon author Ken Kesey playing bit parts.

“We were shooting down there on the MacKenzie river and a cousin of Kesey’s was on the crew,” says Cody. “I said, ‘Let’s just call him up.’”

In the end, though, the film was less than magic. Never released in theaters, Ricochet River was distributed only on DVD.

“The book is very slow developing,” says Cody, assessing its failure to translate to the screen. “It’s literary. It doesn’t have a villain. The movie people tried to create a villain, a black hat character and a white hat character and then create a love interest.” None of which was in the book.

Things like the theme of the teenagers taking their cue from nature went by the wayside.

“The movie misses that and comes out pretty shallow,” says Cody. “I was talking about it with Kesey. He thinks Hollywood ruined Sometimes a Great Notion and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and he was wrong. So I hesitate to criticize Hollywood.

“On the other hand,” he says with a laugh, “everyone says Ricochet River is a bad movie.”

And the big Hollywood bucks?

“I got a choice of whether to take a percentage or a lump sum up front,” says Cody. “I took the lump sum up front, which was the best financial decision I ever made. To a teacher-writer it was a lot of money. Counting the three or four years of options, it came out to $80,000.”