I don’t know that I’d put much money on this ever becoming a film, but if you were enough of a fan of Nicolas Winding Refn‘s film Drive that you have to find out what might happen to the main character at some point in the future, a novel scheduled for April release will deliver the info.

In all the talk of the film Drive, one name often left out is that of James Sallis, the man who wrote the novel upon which Hossein Amini‘s script was based. That script is what attracted Ryan Gosling, who was instrumental in bringing Refn on board, and it’s all history from there. Sallis has, it turns out, written a sequel to his original novel, and Driven, as it is called, will be published next year. Read on for some more info.

Litreactor has confirmation from Sallis that the book will be published in April; it comes from Poisoned Pen Press, the same outfit that published Drive. We don’t have a huge plot synopsis, but there is this:

Six years later – Phoenix. Out of nowhere someone wants Driver dead. Who? Why? Big mistake…

Sounds like there’s the potential for Driver to become a character that Sallis goes back to once in a while. Then again, we don’t know how this one ends.

Robert Rosenwald at Poisoned Pen said,

When we agreed to publish Drive, it felt like a happy accident. In the Spring of 2004 my friend and one of my favorite writers, James Sallis, gave me a slight manuscript: Drive. I loved it… After the extraordinary success of Drive and with no contractual obligation to Poisoned Pen Press, Vicky and Jim easily could have sold Driven to virtually any mainstream publishing house for significant money, but they didn’t. I should not have been surprised. Among the many themes running through these books—and upon reflection, through all the books of James Sallis—is integrity. I know of no other writer so devoted to his craft and to what he believes.

Here’s the cover art:

At this point I hope the movie gets to stand on its own; a sequel seems like a bad idea, especially if Refn isn’t involved. But I haven’t read the new novel; maybe it is fantastic and would lend itself very well to the screen. And the Pusher films show that Refn can certainly create compelling sequels, at least out of his own material. [via Twitch]