Larry Beinhart

Who is Larry Beinhart?

Larry Beinhart is an American author. He is best known as the author of the political and detective novel American Hero, which was adapted for the political-parody film Wag the Dog. Directed by Barry Levinson, it starred Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, William H. Macy, Denis Leary, Kirsten Dunst, Woody Harrelson, and Willie Nelson. The New Yorker called the novel "a tour de force of satirical fiction."

Beinhart is a Fulbright Fellow. He's won the Edgar Award, the Gold Dagger, the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and been shortlisted for the Edgar two more times, and for the Shamus Award.

"Salvation Boulevard," his most recent novel, is currently in production with Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Marisa Tomei, Isabelle Fuhrman, Ed Harris, and Jim Gaffigan. The director is George Ratliff, the producer is Cathy Schulman. It is scheduled for a 2011 release.

The tag-line for the novel is, "The corpse is an atheist professor, the suspect is an Islamic foreign student, the defense attorney is a Jewish lawyer, the investigator is a born-again Christian – the mystery is God." It is a serious study of religion, faith, and the classic questions of philosophy wrapped inside a comic thriller.