PeteDexter Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Barry Levinson Taking a Mystery 'Train'
Filed under: Drama », Thrillers », Deals », Noir », Mystery & Suspense », Scripts », Newsstand »
If there's one movie descriptive that can actually get my jaded heart racing, it's "in the style of L.A. Confidential." Sure, it's glib, and probably sells the potential film and its source material short, but I can't help it, it's a magical phrase. And The Hollywood Reporter (by way of Lakeshore Entertainment) used it to describe Barry Levinson's latest movie.Levinson is set to direct an adaptation of Peter Dexter's novel Train, a story set in 1950's Southern California. It centers around Miller Packard, a white sergeant in the San Diego Police Department, who has little time for the hypocrisy and racism of his age. An avid golfer, he befriends a troubled young African-American caddy named Lionel "Train" Walk, who harbors knowledge of an unreported murder that haunts his past. The city politics and racism of the 50's surround the murder investigation, and threaten their friendship.
Dexter's books have been popular in Hollywood recently -- he was the pen behind Mulholland Falls and The Paperboy is currently in production with Paul Verhoven and Jan de Bont. Unlike with Falls, he won't be penning the script this time around. That job falls to Allison Burnett, who's a pretty popular writer at Lakeshore, adapting Fame and penning Untraceable for them.
Hopefully, a Cinematical reader or two can chime in on the book. From its reviews, the source material sounds pretty enticing. Here's hoping this can not only be a comeback for Levinson, but a noir rival for L.A. Confidential.
Verhoeven to Direct 'The Paperboy'
Filed under: Drama », Deals », RumorMonger »
Switching things up from the recent European period pieces that Paul Verhoeven has attached his name to (the already-released Black Book and the upcoming Azazel), the director is heading stateside again. Filmstaker has word that the director of hits like RoboCop and Basic Instinct (and somehow-beloved flops like Showgirls) is going to helm a new project called The Paperboy. (They got the news from Teletext.co.uk, but the source report is "no longer available.") The project will be an adaptation of Pete Dexter's book from the '90s.The story focuses on a young man named Jack who is a college dropout working for his dad's Moat County Tribune paper in Florida. His older brother Ward, who reports for the Miami Times, comes to town with partner Yardley Acheman to look into the 4-year-old murder of the town sheriff, and Jack helps them out. After Ward gets badly beaten by a few sailors, his partner fabricates evidence to finish the story and brings further trouble to the brothers. According to Publishers Weekly, it's a "story line so complicated that it loses focus and then almost peters out." That being said, it's got some potential -- Dexter wrote Deadwood, the book that the popular television series was based on. (Not to mention Paris Trout, which was helmed by Gyllenhaal papa Stephen.) And the writer has some screenplays under his belt -- from the ick-angelic Michael to The Devil and Daniel Webster -- so there's a chance he'll pen this adaptation. Yeah ... just about anything is possible for this project.
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