In Contention

Tag: Hatfields and McCoys

  • Eric Roth on film noir

    Screenwriter Eric Roth, as ever, has a plate full of projects these days.  When he’s not working through an NFL-sanctioned Vincent Lombardi biopic with Robert De Niro, he’s perhaps working on his adaptation of Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City.”

    Then there are original scripts that have been lying around, waiting for filmmakers to step up.  The Brad Pitt-attached “Hatfields and McCoys,” for instance, which was one of a number of possibilities bandied about for Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart” follow-up.  And one of these days I imagine Roth and Michael Mann will get back to that western they’ve been talking about.

    In case you hadn’t heard, Roth’s adaptation of Jonathan Safran’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” which he’s been working on for the better part of a year, recently landed a greenlight with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock set to star.  Scott Rudin is producing.  The screenwriter also recently participated in AMPAS’s film noir interview series.  Callie Khouri, Scott Frank and Lawrence Kasdan are a few of the other writers offering up their thoughts on the genre.  Give them a look here.

  • Uh…‘Good Shepherd’ was always part of something more

    Universal Pictures\' The Good ShepherdI’ve read three stories today indicating that Robert De Niro wants to spin “The Good Shepherd” into a trilogy.  This…is not news.  Not exactly.

    The first mention was an aside in this Variety story, which was simply a “by the way” kind of thing.  Then Cinematical got a hold of it and passed the news along, and now I see The Movie Blog is sourcing Rope of Silicon (should have sourced Variety, but there’s that whole boycott brouhaha), and suddenly a couple of comments have become a “news item” for the day.

    I’d like to, if I may, quote my own words from a New York Times story nearly two years old:

    But Mr. De Niro, who was developing a C.I.A. project of his own at Tribeca Productions, agreed to a deal that kept things moving: He would consider directing or starring in “The Good Shepherd,” if Mr. Roth would write the Tribeca film, which deals with the period from the Bay of Pigs invasion to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    At least one other CIA film was always in the cards, though the reception of “The Good Shepherd” (for which I have great respect despite its flaws) may or may not have slowed that train a bit.  Eric Roth told me about the possibility of a trilogy in the above interview, but that didn’t make the edit.

    Anyway, looking back at the Roth piece, I’m reminded of two of his scripts that I desperately hope find traction: “Hatfields and McCoys” (with Brad Pitt chomping at the bit to make it a reality) and “Comanche” (pitting Roth with Michael Mann once again for a western that sounds like it could be out of the park).

    This year, of course, Roth will be pushing the envelope as always with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” one of my most anticipated films of 2008.