Now he's chasing a book connection

Gene Hackman is finished, done -- with the movies, that is.

"I've stopped working in the film business," he says quietly over the phone. (The most shocking thing when you talk to Gene Hackman is that he doesn't sound like Gene Hackman, the gruff, ornery SOB that you recognize in dozens of memorable film roles.)

But what made him decide to give up acting, a profession that has brought him two Oscars and acclaim as one of America's greatest living movie stars? Was it the disappointing response to his last film, "Welcome to Mooseport," a 2004 comedy that had him camping it up with a way-outta-his-league Ray Romano?

"I was ready to quit even before that," Hackman explains. "But because the film didn't work necessarily and it was a little disappointing, I thought, well, it's a good time to stop, you know. Rather than keep pressing and maybe go out on a real sour note or something like that. ... And I feel comfortable with what I've done."

While it appears that Hackman, at 78, is quite content leaving acting in the past, it seems he is more comfortable these days being an author. He has been going from city to city, promoting his latest novel, "Escape From Andersonville" (St. Martin's Press).

What's that? You didn't know Lex Luthor was a novelist?

Considering that "Andersonville" (which he co-wrote with marine archaeologist and Santa Fe neighbor Daniel Lenihan, 63) is his third book, he is quite the established author.

"Well, it's been over 10 years," he says. "Maybe 12 years, Dan?"

Lenihan jumps in. "Yeah, 12, 13 -- you mean, since we started writing the first book, right?"

"Yeah. We were just sitting around talking -- we had been friends for a few years -- and sitting around talking about novels that we liked and just decided we were going to try it."

Their partnership began with the seafaring novel "Wake of the Perdido Star" in 1999. Five years later, they followed that book up with "Justice for None," about a pair of fugitives in early 20th-century America.

"Andersonville" has Hackman and Lenihan going all the way back to the Civil War. The story follows a Union officer as he escapes from Georgia's hellish Andersonville prison camp (aka Camp Sumter) and returns to execute a rescue mission for his fellow men.

The authors say it wasn't their intention to write a Civil War novel -- it just turned out that way.

Says Lenihan: "One of the things that attracted us there was I think, initially, we were going to do something in the 1800s on the Mississippi. And then, as we started playing around with the dates more and more, we saw what kind of a really rich period, in terms of drama and everything, the Civil War was.

"I mean, it's a horrific period in one way. But it's also one that, when you have people that are so energized and acting kind of at the far-out fringes of their -- the extreme period was just one which attracted us."

With the book centering on men forced to live in horrible conditions in a notoriously nightmarish detainment area, readers might assume the authors are commenting on such modern day Andersonvilles as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

"I don't think that had anything to do with what spurred us to doing this novel," Lenihan says. "I mean, I think a couple of people have brought up that there's a lot of issues about the prison systems, you know, and what's going in Guantanamo and all of that. Gene, to my recollection, that was nothing --"

"Yeah, I don't think we ever considered that at all."

"No, we were looking at the story."

"Speaking of the prisons, the Northern prisons were not a walk in the park either. ... So there were a number of prisons on both sides that were in pretty bad shape."

For the most part, Hackman says people who have picked up the book or have attended readings are, of course, more interested in Hackman's past career.

"Yeah, people ask me a lot of movie questions during the book tour," he says. "But I think that's to be expected. A lot of people don't know that I write, and so they're curious about that. I suppose a lot of them show up for that fact, too.

"But, it's been real good. People have been very nice to me. I've always had good rapport with most people, most fans or whatever you want to call it. I have a good time, actually."

So have people pulled out DVDs of "The French Connection" during book signings?

"Oh yeah, we have that and 'Superman' DVDs, 'Poseidon Adventure,' all of them, you know. It just kind of goes with the territory."

It looks like Gene Hackman isn't done with the movies after all.