The Car Man (Bourne) opera. I didn't even know it that well, and I still don't know it that well, to be honest. I know there are parallels, but it was more the feeling of the music and the feeling of what we all know Carmen to be." The story is loosely based on the 1934 novel "The Postman Always Rings Twice" by American novelist James M. Cain (1892–1977) and the 1946 and 1981 films of the same name respectively starring John Garfield and Lana Turner, and Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. In the films, Frank, a drifter, stops at a rural California diner
The Postman (film) which the moral message of the novel had been reversed) and hired screenwriter Brian Helgeland; Brin says the two of them "rescued the 'soul' of the central character" and reverted the story's message back to one of hope. In an interview with "Metro" before filming began, Brin expressed his hope that "The Postman" would have the "pro-community feel" of "Field of Dreams" instead of the "Mad Max" feel of Costner's other post-apocalyptic film "Waterworld". Brin said that, unlike typical post-apocalyptic movies that satisfy "little-boy wish fantasies about running amok in a world without rules", the intended moral of "The Postman"