Though he has only directed two films with a third on the way, James McTeigue has already shown some eclecticism. Beginning in 2007 with the dystopian Alan Moore adaptation V For Vendetta, he then made the extremely violent and highly stylized Nina Assassin in 2009 and coming in 2012 is The Raven, a film in which Edgar Allen Poe must track down a killer who is taking inspiration from Poe's stories. He's even already lined up his next project, Message From the King, which is about a man who travels to Los Angeles to find his missing sister. Apparently McTeigue likes to plan way in advance, however, because he's already in talks for the project after that. So what will it be? Why, a 1920s gangster film, of course!
Deadline reports that McTeigue is in talks to re-team with Relativity Media to direct Ness/Capone, a new look at the battle between the Bureau of Prohibition agent and Chicago's most notorious kingpin. When thinking about the historic conflict most think of Brian De Palma's 1987 classic The Untouchables, the new film will take a slightly different tact. Instead of being a 32-year-old Kevin Costner type, Eliot Ness will be portrayed as a "skirt-chasing 26-year-old publicity hound who seemed to get an adrenaline charge out of courting danger," who would pull stunts like driving around Capone's hotel in hijacked bootlegging trucks. The script, which made the 2010 Black List (a list of the best unproduced screenplays in any given year), was written by Grant Pierce Myers.
So what age appropriate actor would you want to see as the new Eliot Ness? Andrew Garfield? Paul Dano? Jamie Bell? Aaron Johnson? Nicholas Hoult? Let your voice be heard in the comments section below.
