Spokane’s Jess Walter’s ‘So Far Gone’ to get Netflix series

Spokane’s Jess Walter is a New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, Edgar Award winner – and potentially soon-to-be executive producer of a Netflix series based on his latest book, “So Far Gone.”

Though plans remain tentative, Walter said that the streaming service has greenlit a mini-series adapted by Mark Bomback, writer of “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”

“So Far Gone” is a fictional story following an ex-Spokesman-Review reporter, Rhys Kinnick. During a heated Thanksgiving dinner following the 2016 election, Kinnick punches his conspiracy-theorist son-in-law in the face and leaves town, horrified by his actions and the state of the country.

Seven years later, Kinnick’s estranged grandchildren find him in his Stevens County cabin with news that his daughter had disappeared. When the children are kidnapped by their father’s Christian Nationalist church, Kinnick returns to the world he left behind to find his family.

Walter met with Bomback in Spokane soon after the book was released in June, Bomback wanting to ensure details in his script were accurate to the region.

There will be – as there nearly always are – changes to the story as it moves from text to video, Walter said. Producing a series rather than a movie will allow viewers to see more character backstory.

“It was sort of what I intended with the novel, was for it to be – even though it would have this compelling, suspenseful story over the top – it would really be about the characters and how they got to the place they’re in,” Walter said.

“So Far Gone” is Walter’s 11th book, but it was his first book – “Every Knee Shall Bow” – that set the precedent for his writing about conspiracy theorists and radical right-wing groups.

“Every Knee Shall Bow” was published in 1995 and details the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff in Boundary County, Idaho, between a “white separatist” and his family and the FBI over 11 days.

“Every Knee Shall Bow,” which will be rereleased next year under the title “Ruby Ridge,” was the first of Walter’s works to be put on the big screen.

A two-episode CBS miniseries titled “Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy” aired in 1996 based on the book, and the episodes were later merged into a movie called “The Siege at Ruby Ridge.”

Since then, Walter guesses that he has entered into eight to nine other Hollywood adaptation agreements, even writing the scripts for some screenplays himself, but they have fallen through or been put on hold for various reasons.

“You meet incredibly creative people, and they really want to make great stuff. But you have to understand that they’re trying to make 20 things at the same time, and only one of those is going to go forward,” he said. “I’ve never really minded the fact that things don’t get made. It’s really a natural part of the process.”

Netflix committing to fund the series allows for the production team to skip a number of hurdles, though.

“I don’t know what their timeline will be,” he said. “But it means they’re setting out to make the show right away.”

It is too soon to determine where filming will take place, but Walter said he plans to pitch Spokane.

Even with Netflix’s backing, Walter said that “it still takes a long time for these things.”

“The real finish line is when they make it and it appears,” he said. “And, you know, that could be a year or more away.”