Can you hear it, that faint rumbling sound emanating from Southern California? No, it’s not plate tectonics shifting under the San Andreas’ fault again. No, my friends. That’s the sound of cellphones buzzing all around Hollywood. J.D. Salinger has died.

“So,” you may be saying to yourself. “Why would Hollywood care?” Well, let me tell you. J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece, The Catcher in the Rye, has been coveted by filmmakers and actors alike for 50 years. Salinger’s antihero, Holden Caulfield, is like the holy grail for method actors. The original (if not defining) angsty teen.

But for years J.D. Salinger (a reclusive and enigmatic figure for certain) had blocked any and all seeking to adapt Catcher into a film (and even for stage, too). A veritable who’s who of Hollywood have all struck out.

Sam Goldwyn
Jerry Lewis
Marlon Brando
Jack Nicholson
Tobey Maguire
Leonardo DiCaprio
John Cusack
Billy Wilder
Elia Kazan
Harvey Weinstein
Steven Spielberg

Basically, the next time you’re sitting court side watching the Lakers, just know that most of the people in attendance around you got busted off by J.D. Salinger at some point in time.

Moreover, it was Salinger’s reluctance over the years that made Catcher, well, such a catch. Nobody’s ever done it before. You, yes, you, could be the very first Holden Caulfield to ever grace the silver screen.

So, to summarize, the epicenter of that buzzing noise threatening to trigger the next big quake is every other producer, agent, and actor in Hollywood cold calling J.D. Salinger’s next of kin in a frantic game of “Let’s Make a Deal.”

Last word. As an author, I can sympathize with Salinger’s lifelong apprehensions about seeing his baby, his magnum opus, adapted for film. You just don’t want it ruined. “But the Harry Potter films are awesome!” you contend. I agree. But then there’s also that Eragon movie.