Torso Tagged Articles at Cinematical

David Fincher must be feeling on top of the world right now, what with 13 Oscar nominations for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a successful box office haul. Yet that's not the kind of credibility that can get your next movie made in Hollywood. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has let the rights to Brian Michael Bendis' Torso lapse, leaving the project in limbo. "It's a weird and odd situation," Bendis said. "We heard it was greenlit one day, then the next we heard it wasn't. Hopefully, it'll have a happy ending."

Paramount has had the rights since 2006, and hired Ehren Kruger to adapt the book. But last month, part of the original rights deal expired and Paramount declined renewing them, and buying them outright. The studio still owns the Kruger screenplay, and is in negotiations to strike a new option agreement with Bendis and Marc Andreyko, to whom the rights reverted. Fincher is still attached as director, though one who is sans screenplay.

It is a very weird situation -- the project has A-List all over it. Not only does it have Fincher directing, but it attracted interest from Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. While based on a graphic novel, it's not superhero stuff, but the true story of Eliot Ness and the Torso Murderer. Considering everyone has been desperate for a sequel to The Untouchables for years, you'd think this was a slam dunk ... but apparently nothing is during these economic times. But as everyone in their right mind wants to see this done, I hope Paramount makes its mind up to stake a claim or let it pass on to another studio.

You know, sometimes I just don't understand Hollywood. You have to wonder who's making the decisions at Paramount these days, because David Fincher's Eliot Ness flick has all the makings of a profitable little film for the studio, but the project has been wasting away at Paramount since 2006. So despite having an all-star cast, including Matt Damon as Eliot Ness, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams, the production just can't seem to get off the ground. Unfortunately, the bad news just keeps on coming, and Entertainment Weekly reports that time is running out for the film.

News of the flick first hit back in 2006, when it was reported that Fincher was working on an adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis' graphic novel, Torso. Bendis' novel centered on, "a series of brutal murders that took place in the Cleveland area between 1935 and 1938, and were investigated by Ness, who was by then the Public Safety Director of Cleveland." There is still no confirmation on whether Fincher will be using Bendis' novel, but EW reports that Paramount has "...recently received a finalized script from Ehren Kruger (The Ring) and would make a decision before the rights ran out." (By the way, the rights run out on December 15th.)

Comics Continuum has put together great roundup of Todd McFarlane's panel appearance this weekend at New York's Comic-Con. Though the talk was wide-ranging, McFarlane spoke extensively about his upcoming movie projects, including both David Fincher's Torso (which McFarlane is producing) and a second Spawn film. Among other things, McFarlane confirmed that Torso is a long way off - when he finishes Zodiac, Fincher will go to work on another project (presumably Benjamin Button); after that wraps is the earliest Torso could get off the ground.

When it came to the new Spawn project, though, McFarlane spoke optimistically about starting production before the end of the year, and having the film in theaters by 2007. He's currently finishing up the script, which is less a sequel than a completely new story, focusing on the character of Twitch. Said McFarlane, "Spawn doesn't utter a word in this film. The guy will all the speaking parts is Twitch." Though the film is not yet associated with a studio, McFarlane (who will be making his directorial debut with the project) assured listeners that he has several interested studios, and that a deal will be done once the screenplay is finalized. With an expected budget of less than $10 million, the director envisions the film as very different from the original, which cost four times that amount. Instead of worrying much about effects, he hopes for something more simple: "a gritty, dark, scary, creepy movie."

Like a lot of other people, we were pretty dern excited to hear the news last week that David Fincher was going to undertake a screen version of Torso, a graphic novel about Eliot Ness battling a killer in Cleveland. Though it's going to be a while before this one hits the screen, IESB sat down with producer Todd McFarlane and managed to get a few new details out of him.

• Though Torso takes place after that whole capturing Capone thing, Ness is still in his mid-30s when he goes to Cleveland, so the ideal actor for the role is younger than we might expect. McFarlane says that a vague "they" are leaning towards Matt Damon for the role, and also mentions Leonardo DiCaprio as someone who "sort of fits [the] bill."

• Fincher's original thought (before the release and success of Sin City) was that the film would be shot in black and white.

• As far as a timeline goes, McFarlane hopes that the script will be done (meaning all the rewrites and drafts) by the time Fincher finished Zodiac. That way, if Benjamin Button (the director's next scheduled project) stalls in preproduction, Torso will be ready to go.

• McFarlane hems and haws a lot about the film's fidelity to the graphic novel, but in the end it sounds possible that only the main points of the story will be the same. (No kidding. Seeing as how it's a true story, that's not much of a shock.)

• Assuming a big star is landed to play Ness, the budget will be at least $65 million.

[via JoBlo]

When he finishes Zodiac (currently filming, with Jake Gyllenhaal) and Benjamin Button (currently in development) for Paramount, David Fincher will continue to hang around the studio, this time directing a screen version of Torso, a graphic novel that details Elliot Ness' post-Capone stint as Cleveland's public safety officer. Torso was cowritten by Brian Michael Bendis, who has since gone on to a very successful mainstream comic career in such series as Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-Man.

The novel's story is a fascinating one - and it's true, too. While Ness was working in Cleveland, torsos started showing up in the city's river and, at the same time, Ness began to get taunting letters from the killer. Despite his total lack of background in police work, the former treasury agent was able to put together a team to track down and arrest the man. The screenplay is being adapted by Ehren Kruger, and Todd McFarlane (who originally option the property) is among the producers.

Needless to say, it'll be ages before we see anything from this one, but it sounds like an incredible story. Have any of you read the graphic novel? What's the visual style like?