Nye Heron Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Whitey Bulger Gets His Own Movie
Filed under: Drama », Deals », Scripts »
Whitey Bulger has been around the cinematic block. In 2006, the story of associate John "Red" Shea was picked up for the feature treatment, by Mark Wahlberg, who then went on to star in a different Whitey-influenced film, The Departed. This past December word hit that another associate, John Martorano, was picked for a film. Inevitably, we're led to this moment, and Variety's news that Whitey is finally getting a film to call his very own.Jim Sheridan, the man behind My Left Foot and In America, will be adapting the Bulger biography Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob with Nye Heron, and then direct it. This book has actually been floating around Hollywood for a while now. It was originally optioned by Miramax for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, then picked up by producer Brian Oliver, who had to wait for The Departed to come and go.
One of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted, and a focus of America's Most Wanted a whopping 14 times, James "Whitey" Bulger led the Irish-American Winter Hill Gang in Boston -- getting busy with drug trafficking, murder, and all that gangster stuff. As Sheridan describes it: "This is a story of a corrupt system and about how an angry guy became the second most wanted man after Bin Laden." Presented by a man with the talents of Sheridan -- the project has promise, and should definitely give Martorano a run for his money.
Are you ready for more dips into the world of Whitey?
Jim Sheridan Directing 'I, Claudius'
Filed under: Classics », Drama », Independent », Deals », Scripts », Newsstand »
I love when Hollywood remembers to adapt (or re-adapt, in this case) a classic. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Relativity Media has picked up the rights to Robert Graves' brilliant novel I, Claudius for Jim Sheridan to direct. He'll also be writing the adaption, along with his usual collaborator Nye Heron. I, Claudius purports to be the secret autobiography of Claudius, the fourth emperor of Rome, who used his wits and intelligence to survive his murderous family and become one of Rome's greatest emperors. Fans of HBO's Rome will love it, as it features four strong and manipulative women who manipulate their men in and out of power, peace, and war. Seriously, read it. It's the perfect read for fall.
A new adaptation has been kicking around Hollywood for a year or more -- last year, producer Scott Rudin won the rights, and attached Leonardo DiCaprio and William Monahan to the project, but the deal ultimately fell through. Given that DiCaprio has the busiest pre-production schedule in the world, it's just as well, and it's fallen into good hands now.
I'm quite attached to Graves' work, and the literature nerd in me hopes that Claudius could spur a revival of interest in his works. I would love to see a biopic of the man himself, as he was -- as one of my favorite professors delicately put it -- "a very, um, interesting man." I, Claudius came about because Graves dreamed the emperor himself came to him in a dream and told him to write it -- and then he later decried them as just a moneymaker. And that's not including his White Goddess, and the lover who believed she was a witch. Pick up Goodbye to All That or Miranda Seymour's biography along with I, Claudius -- you'll thank me. I'm going to dig them out of my basement myself.
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