ErikJendresen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Poor Antonio Banderas. Once upon a time he was a hot and intriguing newcomer, God's gift to a rebooted Zorro franchise, poised to have his pick of of juicy Hollywood roles ... and now he's Puss n'Boots and the Nasonex Bee. So far has he fallen that the words "neo-noir" and "Banderas" together in Variety leave me unsettled.

Banderas has signed on to star in The Big Bang, a "neo-noir detective story," the feature directing debut of director Tony Krantz, and featuring a script penned by Erik Jendresen. Banderas will play an L.A. private eye who is hired to find a missing stripper. He follows her trail of pasties to the desert of New Mexico, where he finds dead bodies, a brutal Russian boxer, three LAPD detectives, and an aging billionaire who is trying to create a nuclear equivalent of the Big Bang. I assume nothing good can come of that. Darn those aging billionaires! Always getting into Bond levels of mischief.

The story is pulpy enough to be really intriguing, and Jendresen did some fine work on Band of Brothers. If it was any other leading man, I'd be really into it because of how over the top it sounds -- what do nuclear weapons have to do with missing strippers? I don't know, but I'd like to find out ... so Banderas, can you please make this fun? If you can, I won't ever refer to the Nasonex bee again.

The film garnered Francis Ford Coppola Oscar nods for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It's ranked at #184 out of IMDb's Top 250. And now, after 34 years, The Conversation might be headed for television. Variety reports that AMC is looking to develop a series based on the film, as part of the decade-long efforts of producer Tony Krantz. Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) have been tapped to write a new script.

The interesting twist in this tale -- it won't be a modernized version. "The TV project will be set in the early 1970s -- emulating the time period of the original thriller -- and center on electronic surveillance expert Harry Caul, played in the film by Gene Hackman." Krantz says that the film will look at our present issues with privacy and spying, through the filter of the '70s.

However, this isn't yet set in stone. The project previously failed to get off the ground at ABC, and before that, it almost came to fruition at NBC with the one and only Kyle MacLachlan starring. After the likes of The Lives of Others and Red Road, the project certainly fits -- but should it be directly tied to Coppola's film? Rant or rave in the comments.