Once More Unto the Breach

After suffering through Brian De Palma’s recent film adaptation of James Ellroy’s 1987 novel, The Black Dahlia (which I found unbelievably confusing and interesting almost exclusively for the lovely Mia Kirshner’s performance as Elizabeth Short), I’m not so sure that translating another of Ellroy’s books to the silver screen is such a great idea.

But apparently director Joe Carnahan isn’t so reticent as I would be. The man behind Narc and the forthcoming Smokin’ Aces tells the Web site CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development):

“The film I’m doing next is White Jazz, the [1992] sequel to L.A. Confidential … My brother and I wrote the adaptation … That script is one of my favorites. It’s heartbreaking. It’s, to me, what that book always was--the point of departure from the Eisenhower ’50s to the psychedelic freakshow, Manson ’60s. It’s a total combination of the two with a heavy, heavy voice-over narration, this kind of classic noir. I love the script, dude. I’m going to get it out there--once it’s done I’m going to get it on the Internet so people can read it.”

Carnahan adds, “There’s discussion of [my also] potentially doing a remake of the [Otto] Preminger film Bunny Lake Is Missing,” a 1965 thriller adapted from Evelyn Piper’s 1957 novel of the same name.

Read the whole CHUD piece here.