Asked to describe himself – A crank? A crusader? – novelist Carl Hiaasen replied, “Cranky? Maybe not a crank. No, I think when you write satire, which is what I do, satire always comes from a place of anger, a sense of injustice about things. Satire has a target.”
The cranky, crusading Carl Hiaasen has channeled that anger into more than 30 books. And now, one of his snarkiest satires, his 2013 novel “Bad Monkey,” has been turned into a series on Apple TV+
“Sunday Morning” caught up with the 71-year-old Hiaasen in the Florida Keys, where “Bad Monkey” was being filmed. “It’s a little surreal,” he said on location, ” ’cause you’re sitting in a room all by yourself and write it, alone. And you come here and they have, like, 105 people on the set.”
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One of those 105 is actor Vince Vaughn, who plays the good guy in “Bad Monkey,” police detective Andrew Yancy. Yancy lives in a little bungalow, while an ugly yellow mansion is being built next door, blocking his view. “It takes away the sunset, everything,” Hiaasen said. “And that’s all he lives for.”
Vaughn showed Stahl the monstrosity of a mansion – a fake set. “The house from the front is godawful,” he said, “but it’s really just a set. I think everyone’s glad it’s just pretend and not here forever.”
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One theme in all of Hiaasen’s writing is New Florida vs. Old Florida, development vs. nature. Not just bad monkeys, but bad neighbors.
Carl Hiaasen
Broadly speaking, “Bad Monkey” is based on Hiaasen’s own life in Florida. “Everywhere I went as a kid, hunting and fishing and catching critters and all that stuff, is all paved over; it’s all concrete now,” he said. “But I saw it happening from a very young age, six or seven years old. And I was pissed off then, and am still pissed!”
For 45 years Hiaasen turned his outrage into newsprint at the Miami Herald as a reporter and a columnist
“You often railed against the paving over of Florida,” Stahl said. “The novels seem to be an extension of that?”
“It’s all coming out of the same place, I think,” Hiaasen said. “It’s the same fuel. I think you really have to care about a place to write about it. You have to care if it’s gonna be good.”
He said it’s the “overwhelming beauty” of Florida that makes his characters behave the way they do.
“Some of your characters talk about the beauty as if they’re in a church or a cathedral?” asked Stahl.
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“Very much,” Hiaasen said. “Well, for me, that’s church. It is very spiritual. You just turn a corner in a mangrove swamp, and all of a sudden, you know, you see a beautiful spoonbill up in a tree or somethin’. That’s it, you know? That’s when you’re reminded, like, ‘We can’t screw this up.'”
Hiaasen worships Florida’s flora and fauna. But our own species? Not so much! Just some of the words he’s used to describe his human characters: Greedheads, whore hoppers, pillhead fugitive felon, and “He had facial skin like Rice Krispies.” “I remember that one!” Hiaasen laughed. “You know when they come to me is when I’m driving. And I have a low threshold of patience as a driver. And I will use them as a salutation to another driver … That’s when they come into my head. And then I’ll say, ‘That’s pretty good, I’ll put it in a book!'”
Hiaasen writes about a book a year, but “Bad Monkey” is his first to become a TV show. He’s feeling good about it, even though two feature films based on his novels, “Striptease” and “Hoot,” tanked.
Stahl asked, “Do you understand why those movies didn’t really make it?”
“If I was handed a novel like mine, with the subplots, I would have a really hard time adapting,” Hiaasen said. “The exciting thing about ‘Bad Monkey’ is that it’s a series, and can do more backstory. You can do all kinds of things that you can’t do in a feature film.”
Another thing that’s different about “Bad Monkey” is veteran TV producer Bill Lawrence, who also produced “Ted Lasso.” “I’ve been obsessed with Carl Hiaasen and his books since I was a kid,” Lawrence said.
He told us that it was insane to do this with a real live animal: “Every time we come to a point that it says, And the monkey hisses or scowls, the monkey just smiles. And then it usually will give you a kiss on the hand. And you’re like, ‘You got to be a bad monkey!'”
It’s not just the monkey that caused a problem on the set; tiny indigenous key deer, around the size of golden retrievers, kept stealing the crew’s food! “Florida’s the only place where endangered species line up for Dunkin’ Donuts at sunset,” Hiaasen said.
Hiaasen hasn’t gone Hollywood. In 2020 he wrote another novel, “Squeeze Me,” about fat cats and pythons slithering around the grounds of a Palm Beach mansion suspiciously like Mar-a-Lago. One character, a villain, is a former president of the United States. “You think that there’s a resemblance?” Hiaasen laughed.
And Hiaasen even co-wrote a song last year with his good friend and fishing buddy, the late Jimmy Buffett:
“Fish Porn,” with lyrics by Jimmy Buffett, Carl Hiaasen and Mac McAnally:
Whatever genre Carl Hiaasen is working in, you can always expect a funny ending.
“I got a letter one time from a reader who said, ‘I love your books about Florida. And I’m moving there anyway!'” he laughed.
To watch a trailer for “Bad Monkey” click on the video player below:
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Story produced by Richard Buddenhagen. Editor: Mike Levine.
