jason blum Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you're as addicted to those mini courtroom drama/mystery docs on channels like A&E, Court TV and MSNBC as I am, then you most likely caught the one-hour special on Richard "Ice Man" Kuklinkski. For awhile, he was a contract killer working with the Gambino crime family and, by his own account, did away with as many as 200 people. If you managed to catch the TV special, you immediately know why they call this guy Ice Man; he's cold, calculated and could care less about any of the lives he took. To make matters worse, the man kept his job a secret from his wife and three children. (Right now, some therapist is making a lot of money off those poor kids.)

Producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Jason Blum have picked up the rights to Philip Carlo's book The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, for brothers Allen and Albert Hughes (From Hell) to direct. Prior to his death in prison (while serving two life sentences), Kuklinski openly talked about his murders to folks like Carlo and his book is primarily based on those conversations. Currently, both producers are searching for a writer and, though they have first-look deals with Paramount, they are waiting to fully package the pic before setting it up at a studio. It will be interesting to see how everyone involved goes about tackling this story -- I mean, do they expect us to feel sympathy for their main character? I imagine they will work the whole FBI angle into it, and also focus on those who finally caught up with Kuklinsky. If not, get ready for one heck of a downer, folks -- this guy is (or should I say, was) one rotten dude.

Well the only other movie I can think of that was based on a Vanity Fair article was The Insider, and that was a fantastic film that managed to generate box office and Oscar buzz -- what more could you want? I would imagine that Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Jason Blum had similar ideas about adapting a high profile VF article,when they picked up their latest project for Paramount.

Variety reported that Blum and Di Bonaventura have bought the rights to David Wise's article The Shop for Paramount. Wise's article has yet to be published, but already a movie deal is on the table -- wow, they didn't waste any time did they? Wise, an investigative journalist, co-authored the infamous book about the CIA called The Invisible Government. Wise also is remembered for a column in the New York Times in 1981, that attacked Reagan for the pardon of Mark Felt (who's now probably better known as Woodward and Bernstein's Deep Throat).

Details about the project are being kept under lock and key, since the article hasn't even published. Plus, would you expect any less from a project about the intensely secret organization? Kelley Sane has already been hired to adapt the piece, but there is no word of a director yet, I can only assume it will be on a "need-to-know" basis. ...

[via Empire Online]