Bruce Willis was amazed when he discovered that the film rights for Robert Crais' novel Hostage were still available.

The actor bought a copy of the book in 2001, but left it on his shelf for a month before finally picking it up. Soon he was engrossed in the story, and immediately enquired about the film rights.

"I bought the book and it sat on my shelf for about a month," Willis is quoted by Breakingnews.ie as saying. "I picked it up and got caught up in it, read it overnight and called and asked about the rights. Fortunately they were available. That was about four years ago."

Willis now stars as policeman Jeff Talley in an adaptation of the book.