Lucas Davenport is white, not black. Stupid casting decision and not anywhere near related to the series.Bizarre. It's like casting Pee Wee Herman to play Shaft.What were they thinking?Why do movie makers do this time and again?No one who likes the books wants to see changes in the characters or story lines.Don't make stuff up or re-write stories to be more PC.What would the writers think about this? I can't believe Sandford signed off on this piece of crap.If a character is a white male in the series, don't cast the movie with a black female. Keep the gender and race the way it's written. That's as bad as watching revisionist Robin Hood stories with Maid Marian running around Sherwood kicking tail like some warrior. Never happened. Wouldn't happen.Stop this PC garbage.

The late Lawrence Sanders created one of the most interesting characters and series of novels with Archie McNally, the witty, erudite and completely engaging playboy-investigator for his father's prestigious Palm Beach law firm. After his death, these novels were undertaken by Vincent Lardo, who has maintained the character/series (in my opinion) even better than Mr. Sanders.Stuart Woods has created a character, Stone Barrington, a well-to-do New York City lawyer and ex-police officer, who troubleshoots the important cases for a major law firm where intrigue and danger are involved.However, John Sandford's Lucas Davenport is a character equal to, and perhaps even a bit more interesting than these other two handsome, urbane and competent investigators. The "Prey" novels are all superb, and amount to the best efforts in this genre, ever. Lucas spends a great deal of his time up to his ass in snow and ice in the north country, in Minneapolis and other parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, etc. And he's a bit "rougher" than the other two fellows, but perhaps even a bit smarter, and like them, well-to-do and probably the richest of the three.All three authors have developed these key characters (along with their main cohorts) so that you have the most vivid pictures of them in your mind. Being the most prolific of the three, you'll see a bit more of Lucas than Stone or Archie. However, with characters like these, you never tire of them, and look forward eagerly to their next appearances. Since my first readings of all three, I haven't failed once to get every new offering at retail/hardcover, as soon as available.But ---- whoever thought-up this presentation should seek counseling, not just from a U.S. shrink, but should visit a team in Vienna. Eriq LaSalle is an excellent actor. But his resemblance of the character, and his presentation of the role in this flick, is farther afield than: (a) Mickey Roonery as Rhett Butler; (b) Woody Allen as Huey Long; (c) George Hamilton as Malcolm X; (d) or even Yakov Smirnoff as Abraham Lincoln.I'm just surprised than John Sandford allowed this presentation to be completed in this fashion, and with this casting and portrayal of the character who is the most significant aspect of an outstanding, diversified writing career. I cannot help but believed he and/or his agent and attorney somehow signed an agreement with some fine print they failed to read thoroughly.Some aspects of the story were presented in "O.K." fashion -- however, this film has to get only 1*, for the total failure to present a lead character even vaguely resembling the actual.

Being a huge fan of the prey novels, I thought they stuck to the book fairly well but the casting completely ruined the movie for me. It seems who ever cast this movie has never read the books. The complete mangling of the casting included all the key characters. Davenport, Weather, Sloan and black did not reflect how they were created at all. The only saving one was the casting of the villain. He was played well. If they decide to do more of these movies I can only hope they recast all the ongoing characters and the creators do more research into who they are casting. The Prey novels have a huge following and i know they had to be disappointed in who they saw on the screen compared to the image they had in their imaginations.

This film is very dark, and is a far cry from any of the forgettable "Disease of The Week" telefilms that many have come to love. The photography and acting were solid and John Sanford's weak playboy character of Lucas Davenport was made more complex and much more interesting in the film version. Edgy film making and brutal scenes will bother some. Many local ABC affils. did not air the film because they felt it was offensive.Great TV film! LaSalle does well