Amber Heard, fly fishing - no wonder all the fly geeks are swooning.

From the story:

I’m eagerly awaiting the next scene, because the crew is about to shoot the most incredible catch in the history of angling literature.

That’s saying a lot—fishermen, especially those who write fiction, are liars—but this sequence is pretty unbelievable. Waiting on the bank is 27-year-old actor Zach Gilford—best known as introverted high-school quarterback Matt Saracen on NBC’s Friday Night Lights—who plays the novel’s hero, a troubled fly-fishing prodigy named Gus Orviston.

Gus stumbles upon The River Why’s heroine, a blond fishing goddess named Eddy, as she hooks a huge steelhead with a homemade hazel pole, tosses the rod into the river to slow the fish, sheds her clothes, and subdues the leviathan by swimming after it and grabbing it underwater. Only the most imaginative of anglers could have dreamed up such a catch, which has achieved mythic status among fishermen in the 26 years since The River Why was published.

Is it me, or is the writer “eagerly awaiting the next scene” not because it’s famous – but because there’s high probability for a naked Amber Heard? (We thought so too).

Still, those eager for news about the production (and I have it from an anonymous reliable source that the production company didn’t exactly raise the bar for preparedness), will find the Outside article is a bonanza.

The legions of Amber Heard fanboys will be delighted with the Amber Heard photo gallery (oh la la), while fans of Friday Night Light’s Zach Gilford (count me among them) will no doubt be fascinated to learn his favorite fly is the Wooly Bugger – and that he’s also a backcountry (backpacking) guide (which he considers a “real” job instead of acting).

While we feel Gilford’s devotion to the guide business is admirable, we’d like to point out backcountry guides get to spend precious little time with the likes of Amber Heard and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights hottie). Buck up, buddy.

What’s the Buzz?

The fly fishing universe is all abuzz, and because we’re a fly fishing blog, we’re willing to speculate wildly as to why.

First, the fly fishing industry is hungry for another Hollywood-driven recruitment movie, and second, fly fishermen are largely geeks about this stuff. (Especially the naked fly fishing chick stuff. We’re geeks. Geeks.)

Then there’s the drama surrounding David James Duncan, his publisher and the movie rights – a scrap involving lawsuits, mudslinging and secret settlements – the kind of juicy Hollywood/celebrity crap the boring, staid world of fly fishing hardly ever gets to “enjoy.”

That’s OK, Undergrounders – our entertainment division stands ready to provide the kind of exploitive, sensationalistic in-depth coverage our geeky readers demand.

See you at the movies, Tom Chandler.

Now, with production beginning on the movie version of David James Duncan’s The River Why, will we see a new boom in fly fishing — and a whole new wave of models throwing tailing loops in SUV/Viagra ads?

Word comes from the Oregon state office of film and television that a movie adaptation of David James Duncan’s “The River Why” is set to start shooting around July 7.

As the film’s Web site describes Duncan’s book: “Set on the banks of a wild river, ‘The River Why’ is the story of 20 year old Gus Orviston, the Mozart of flyfishing, who leaves his big city home in rebellion from his family. In the process he comes in contact with an assortment of eccentric characters who help him in his journey to adulthood. Most of all, The River Why is a love story. The love of a man for the wilderness, and for a beautiful woman who comes to share it with him.”

It’s not like me to claim credit for things I obviously had everything nothing to do with, but clearly, one of Hollywood’s brighter bulbs read the Underground’s massively popular “The Five Fly Fishing Movies That Should be Made Immediately” post, and rather than pay me a percentage of the gross, searched out the one plot that wasn’t already suggested by myself or the Undergrounders.

It’s OK; if our huge monetary sacrifice helps our beleaguered fly fishing industry off its knees and back onto its blistered, unsteady feet, well, I’m glad to once again be of service.

I’m dashing this off just prior to a death march hike into the mountains after brookies, and while the cold, cloudy, threatening weather suggests a stay at home hugging a cup of hot chocolate, I think the Undergrounders should discuss the following talking points in the hopes I might survive and return to discuss it with them:

• Can Hollywood possibly do The River Why (a literate book) justice?
• Will fly fishing enjoy another boom, and will we be subjected to endless “yep, I was there” ramblings about the movie from people who once were employed to buy donuts for the film crew?
• Is this good news, or bad?

I’m sure this will provide fodder for message boards all over the fly fishing universe; naturally, I expect my readers to rise above the obvious gags that I didn’t have time for, instead holding a literate, Algonquin Roundtable level of discussion.

See you in the cold, windy mountains, Tom Chandler.