Jake Gyllenhaal and Laura Dern as Homer Hickam and Miss Riley in "October Sky" (1999)"An interesting guy, Homer Hickam. The former NASA engineer scored big in 1998 with “Rocket Boys”, a memoir of his high school rocket club back in West Virginia in the 1950s.
It hit No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list and was adapted as a movie renamed “October Sky” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Laura Dern.
Director Joe Johnston shooting "Jurassic Park III" (2001)
As if that weren't enough, Hickam also spent a decade or so vacationing in Montana, where he joined in dinosaur digs with “October Sky” director Joe Johnston and noted paleontologist Jack Horner.
That experience inspired Hickam to write another novel, “The Dinosaur Hunter,” about Montana's current and prehistoric inhabitants. It's very nearly as enthralling as its author's real-life story.
The narrator of “The Dinosaur Hunter” is Mike Wire, a burnt-out Los Angeles homicide detective who headed east to become a cowboy on a cattle ranch.
Jake Gyllenhaal arriving at LAX airport, on 7th January 2010Before long, Mike is having to deal with shady Hollywood types, Russian mobsters, federal bureaucrats and homegrown Montana survivalists armed with surplus Soviet army ordnance.
Jake Gyllenhaal as Jamie Randall in Love and Other Drugs (2010)In short, “The Dinosaur Hunter” is a classic boys' adventure yarn for boys of the Viagra generation". Source: www.starnewsonline.com
