Clint Eastwood’s Blood Work is quietly a prequel to the Bosch TV series, but is this forgotten thriller worth a revisit? Author Michael Connolly originally optioned his Harry Bosch novels to Paramount during the 1990s, hoping to see a series of movies (potentially led by John Travolta) come from the deal.
15 years later, he launched a lawsuit to get his character rights back, eventually leading to Prime’s Bosch series. The Bosch TV universe is still going strong, with the spinoff Ballard starring Maggie Q debuting to strong ratings and reviews.
Rewinding to 2002, the first Connolly adaptation came with Clint Eastwood’s final action thriller Blood Work. Eastwood also directed this outing, playing retired FBI profiler Terry McCaleb, who fronted several Connolly books. Blood Work was ultimately a critical and commercial dud, grossing $32 million (or $62 million, when adjusted for inflation) on a $50 million budget (via Box Office Mojo).
Blood Work Is Adapted From A Book Set In The Bosch Universe
Connolly disliked Blood Work so much he killed McCaleb in his books shortly after the movie’s release. Connolly may not have thought much of it, but he has credited the Eastwood thriller for kickstarting his career in movies and television, which would lead to the Bosch show over a decade later.
Blood Work also takes place in the same literary universe as Bosch. While Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch doesn’t appear in either the novel or Eastwood’s movie, McCaleb and Bosch later worked together in the novel A Darkness More Than Night and a Connelly short story тιтled “Cielo Azul.”
Bosch would ultimately investigate McCaleb’s mysterious death in the 2004 novel The Narrows. Short-lived as the character was, McCaleb was a key part of Connolly’s books, making his absence from Bosch all the more pronounced.
Why Terry McCaleb Never Appeared On The Bosch TV Show
McCaleb only appeared in a handful of Connolly novels, with A Darkness More Than Night featuring his first pairing with Bosch. This 2000 book formed the basis for the show’s third season, where McCaleb’s investigation of a murder points to Bosch as the killer.
McCaleb’s role in season 3 is instead filled by two other characters: Harry’s partner, Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) and Detective Robertson (Paul Calderón). That’s for the simple reason that, while Amazon had the rights to the novel, the character of Terry McCaleb still belongs to Warner Bros.
This is also the reason Connolly’s other longtime protagonist, Mickey Haller (AKA “The Lincoln Lawyer), is missing from Bosch season 5, despite appearing in source novel Two Kinds of Truth. It’s a shame somebody couldn’t have talked Eastwood into appearing as McCaleb on Bosch – though the sight of Eastwood and тιтus Welliver together may have been too intense for some.
Blood Work Can Be Seen As An Unofficial Bosch Prequel
Blood Work may have been produced by an entirely different creative team from Bosch, but there’s nothing to say they can’t exist in the same world. They both take place in Los Angeles, but there are no shared characters or plotlines between them.
Blood Work may not have been intended as a Bosch prequel, but there’s nothing to say it isn’t. If anything, it would explain why McCaleb was long retired by the time Bosch season 3 came around, and why he doesn’t appear on the show. It might only be headcanon, but at least it ties these two major Connolly adaptations together.
Source: Box Office Mojo
