Hollywood's 25 Most Powerful Authors

Pulitzer prizewinning MacArthur Genius McCarthy, 79, is proof that serious fiction can translate into serious money in Hollywood. His novel No Country for Old Men rescued the Coen brothers from their career nadir and dominated the 2008 Oscars (with wins for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and supporting actor). “His novels are really challenging in their brutality, so they kind of mutually exclude the sorts of filmmakers incapable of transposing them,” says Tim Blake Nelson, who co-stars in James Franco’s upcoming McCarthy adaptation Child of God. “Few hacks are going to be interested in trying. Therefore, any film actually made from his work is going to be interesting at some level.”