Angelina Jolie in “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” based on the book by author Michael Koryta. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Michael Koryta knew pretty early on in his life that he wanted to be a writer. So he thought it would be practical to do some research first.

He loved classic hard-boiled detective novels by Raymond Chandler and murky crime mysteries by Dennis Lehane. At the age of 16, he decided to find himself an internship with a private investigator in his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. He pored over public records at first, then eventually began interviewing subjects and doing surveillance. He worked for the private investigator through college and the early years of his writing career.

Koryta’s penchant for grounding his fiction in reality, in the nitty gritty details, has helped him build a career as a New York Times bestselling author, with 18 novels to his credit. Koryta, 38, lives about half the year in Camden, though was there almost full time during much of the pandemic. His 2014 novel “Those Who Wish Me Dead” has been made into a film starring Angelina Jolie, which opened at theaters Friday and is streaming on HBO Max.

In the action thriller, Jolie plays a fire warden and survival expert who protects a boy who witnessed his father’s murder and is being pursued by the assassins in a vast Western wilderness. Koryta was one of the screenwriters, along with writer and director Taylor Sheridan, who was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar for the 2016 movie “Hell or High Water.”

Jolie won a best supporting actress for the 1999 film “Girl, Interrupted” and was nominated for a best actress Oscar for the 2008 film “Changeling.” Some of her other films include “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” and “Maleficent.” The movie also stars Finn Little as the witness, Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen as gunmen, Jon Bernthal as a Montana sheriff and writer/producer/actor Tyler Perry as a police officer.

Author Michael Koryta on the set of “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” Photo by Emerson Miller

Koryta visited the film set in New Mexico – which stood in for Montana – and was especially impressed by the giant forest fire scenes. He’s glad that the movie is opening at the same time that more theaters around the country are reopening. He said he’s a little disappointed that, because of COVID-19 restrictions, there wasn’t be a big premiere event for him to attend, but he was happy he would be at his Maine home when the film opened.

“I worked on the screenplay in Maine, and every bit of good news I got about this movie was while I was in Maine,” said Koryta.

Koryta has had several of his books optioned by film or TV productions companies, but the only other one that has been filmed so far is “So Cold the River,” a 2010 ghost story thriller shot in Indiana last year but not yet scheduled for release. For both film deals, the paperwork was notarized in Camden by Annie Thomas, who is a friend of Koryta and his wife. Koryta thinks using Thomas as his Maine notary has brought him good luck.

Koryta’s eye for detail, especially in developing characters, may be one reason film producers are interested in his work, said Tom Wilhite, a veteran Hollywood producer who lives in Camden and worked for the Walt Disney Co. before heading Hyperion Pictures.

“Movies and TV shows are built on characters, and he writes characters in an extremely rich way,” said Wilhite. “His stories are unpredictable and really provide a peak emotional experience.”

Plus, Hollywood likes to deal with known quantities and Koryta has become a brand name as his books have gotten more and more popular over the past 15 years or so. With so many companies making movies for streaming platforms and theaters, the appetite for film-worthy material is “voracious” right now, Wilhite said. Most of Koryta’s books are traditional crime fiction, while a few stories deal with the supernatural.

Author Michael Koryta’s book “Those Who Wish Me Dead” has been made into a film starring Angelina Jolie. Photo by Jonathan Mehring

TEENAGE PRIVATE EYE

Koryta grew up in Bloomington, Indiana – home of Indiana University – where his mother was an elementary school teacher and his father was an electrical engineer. He knew in grade school he wanted to be a writer and eventually gravitated toward crime and mystery. Michael Connelly, known for his crime and detective fiction, was another favorite author.

His decision to get an internship to learn more about the job of a private investigator was encouraged by his high school, but he needed a qualified mentor and his counselor was pretty sure he wouldn’t find one. Koryta opened a phone book and called three private investigators. The first one hung up on him, and the second gave him a polite, “No.” The third – named Don Johnson – heard him out and gave him a shot.

Working for Johnson helped Koryta learn about the business, but it also helped his writing, he said, as he was expected to write concise reports about cases he was researching. At first he pulled public records for Johnson, but later interviewed and followed people, doing surveillance. He gathered facts and information for a variety of cases that included wrongful death suits, fraud, missing people, accidents, stalking and theft. He even helped with a death penalty case.

Koryta continued to work for Johnson throughout college, at Indiana University, where he got a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 2006, and afterward. He also worked as a reporter at the Herald Times newspaper in Bloomington and taught at the IU School of Journalism. He published his first novel, “Tonight I said Goodbye,” in 2004, while still in college. It focused on a private investigator.

Koryta thinks his work, for Johnson and in journalism, has helped his writing in several ways.

“It helps me ground the story. It’s important to have grounded details for the profession, which frees my imagination up,” said Koryta.

A scene from “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Koryta’s wife, Christine Caya Koryta, grew up in Lyman and went to Biddeford High School. They met at a writers’ conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she was one of the organizers. Koyrta eventually got his wife interested in private investigator work too, which she also does now.

The couple has been spending about half the year in Maine for six years or so, while spending the other half in Indiana. They rented in Tenants Harbor, south of Rockland, before buying a home in Camden. Koryta said he had visited Camden long before he met his wife and was struck by its rare combination of features, including mountains, ocean and a small town center. Plus, he was attracted to the fact that so many writers, artists and creative types choose to live there.

Since coming to Maine, Koryta has set three of his novels here, again grounding his fiction in realistic details.

“Never Far Away,” which came out in February, is set in Camden, around Moosehead Lake and the Allagash River area. It’s the story a woman who flees her previous life in Florida and reinvents herself in Maine. “If She Wakes” (2019) is the story a Maine college student left in a seemingly vegetative state after an accident and is set in Portland, Biddeford and Tenants Harbor. “How It Happened” (2018) is set in the midcoast and nearby islands and focuses on an FBI investigator working on a case and uncovering secrets in his hometown. In a blurb for the book fellow Maine author Stephen King called it a “page turner” and “perfect summer reading.”

Koryta also has a book due out in October set in the midcoast called “Where They Wait” and written under a pseudonym, Scott Carson. It’s a horror story about a laid-off newspaper writer and former war correspondent who takes a job with a “sinister” mindfulness app. Koryta has said he writes some books under a different name because it’s something he always wanted to do and that he likes having a book out that people don’t necessarily know he wrote.

He’s been working on a script for a film version of “Never Far Away” and would love to see it filmed in Maine. In addition to providing a setting for his stories, Koryta said that Maine provides inspiration for his writing. He said he found winter in Tenants Harbor particularly helpful for that.

“It’s quiet, inspiring and powerful,” Koryta said.