The best part of this evening for me wasn’t Aaron Sorkin and Ben Mezrich winning an award for “the best adaptation of the printed word into film” (for a work that is debatable as an adaptation in the first place). It was probably talking with finalist Simon Beaufoy about his latest script.
Some of this has made the rounds in the UK, but apparently it’s a werewolves-in-gangland-LA script adapted from an epic poem, “Sharp Teeth,” about same from Toby Barlow. Seriously. Picture “Boyz N the Hood” where Doughboy and his crew turn into savage dogs at night. And it’s a potential project for Danny Boyle to direct.
Beaufoy told me about ride-alongs he has taken with LAPD officers in Compton and Watts in the way of preparation. As a screenwriter, he says he prefers to observe quietly, but the cops he was riding with would insist, quite comically (as he describes it), on perpetrators spending a couple of minutes chatting with him at every bust.