Denver's Peter Heller Says Local Screenings Move Him More Than London Premiere

Denver author Peter Heller wrote much of his 2012 novel The Dog Stars at a coffee shop in Highlands Square, and this weekend that book's journey comes full circle a few miles away in City Park West, where sold-out crowds are gathering to watch it as a $110 million Ridley Scott film. The Dog Stars, set largely in a fictionalized version of Erie, Colorado, has been adapted into a film starring Jacob Elordi as protagonist Hig and Guy Pearce as his companion Pops, following its premiere in London on Wednesday.

Heller attended that London premiere, which was reportedly shut down at Leicester Square, according to Denver Westword. But per the same account, Heller said the local Denver events tied to the film mean more to him than that glitzy overseas debut. The screenings are being hosted by Denver Book Society, the independent bookstore founded this year by local philanthropist Rich Garvin, who is teaming up with Heller for three screenings and accompanying Q&A and autograph sessions.

A Sold-Out Weekend at 9 & CO

The screenings and book signing are taking place at AMC 9 & CO 10 on Albion Street in Denver, with showtimes scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The first screening reportedly sold out, and Westword reports that Denver Book Society sold out that first show in approximately fifteen minutes. The second screening was also sold out or nearly sold out, the outlet notes, while the third screening — set for 7 p.m. Sunday, with the accompanying Q&A and book signing beginning at 8:45 p.m. — remains open for ticket sales.

Tickets for the film alone cost $30 plus fees, while a combined film-and-book ticket runs $48 plus fees and includes a copy of the novel. Denver Book Society plans book sales before and after the third screening as well. Garvin, who owns the bookstore, told the outlet that Heller is one of the only major authors who answers his own messages — a detail that speaks to the close working relationship behind the weekend's events.

From Highlands Square Coffee Shop to Global Billboards

Heller wrote much of The Dog Stars at Common Grounds, a coffee shop once located in Highlands Square, before Alfred A. Knopf published the novel on August 7, 2012, as his fiction debut. The book has since been translated into 22 languages worldwide, and its story — imagining a pandemic that was purely fictional when Heller wrote it in 2012 — now appears on billboards across the country and worldwide promoting the film. Heller told Westword that revisiting the story and its characters in another medium was interesting, and that seeing The Dog Stars filmed moved him profoundly.

The screenplay was written by Mark Smith, who previously wrote The Revenant and The Midnight Sky, according to background compiled by Wikipedia. In the novel, Hig resides at what the book frames as Erie Municipal Airport, an actual general aviation facility in Weld County roughly 20 miles north of Denver featuring a 4,700-foot runway owned by the Town of Erie and bordered by the residential Erie Airpark neighborhood. The story also includes a trip to what remains of Grand Junction, grounding its post-apocalyptic Colorado setting in real Front Range and Western Slope geography.

A New Bookstore Building Its Identity

Heller has written nine novels altogether, including four nonfiction books earlier in his career, after decades working as an outdoor adventure journalist for outlets including NPR and Outside magazine. Among his favorites is The Orchard, released this year, and he has cited other titles like Project Hail Mary and The Odyssey as touchstones tied to his broader literary interests, per Westword's reporting. Garvin's Denver Book Society says its mission is to make the world of books relevant and accessible, and the bookstore plans to open a pop-up location in Cherry Creek Mall later this year.

Garvin opened Denver Book Society earlier this year after purchasing the former Humboldt Kitchen & Bar building at 1700 Humboldt Street for $2.9 million, according to a relay of The Denver Gazette's reporting shared on Facebook. Before founding the store, Garvin had tried to acquire Denver's landmark Tattered Cover chain during its 2023–2024 bankruptcy, a bid that fell through when Barnes & Noble ultimately purchased Tattered Cover instead, according to Denver Book Society's own account. In April, the store filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaration of non-infringement after a Berkeley, California bookstore called Book Society opposed its trademark, as reported by Publishers Lunch.

For Heller, the Denver weekend represents a rare instance of a hometown author watching a story born in a neighborhood coffee shop reach movie screens worldwide. As Westword's Teague Bohlen notes, film adaptations tend to keep books in the public eye, and Denver Book Society's sold-out crowds suggest that The Dog Stars is finding new local readers more than a decade after Heller first put Hig's story on the page.