Oddly enough, even after the flawed but fun Black Dahlia tanked at the box office the preliminaries for another Ellroy film has been announced.
The film in the final chapter of the LA Quartet, White Jazz, would follow one seriously fucked up bad cop named David Klein. Klein is a brutal policeman for whom dirty is a polite word. He grows fat off of bribes and scams and beats and kills without remorse. And he totally wants to sleep with his sister.
So when the FBI decides to crack down on corruption on the police force the brass are more then happy to hang Klein out as a sacrifice, and the Fed’s more then happy to take him. To top it all off Klein is found on film apparently killing someone. It looks like Klein is going to go down, but he has no plans to go down easy.
Joe Carnahan the guy who nearly out Ellroyed Ellroy with Narc is set to direct. This is just plain awesome. Literally perfect. Then again I though De Palma was a literally perfect choice to make translate the gothic horror, decadence and just plain nastiness found in the Black Dahlia, but we all know how that turned out.
The other piece of news is that according to Moviehole Guy Pearce is in talks to return as his straight arrow cop Ed Exley from LA Confidential. Which isn’t exactly the big deal that you think it is, as Exley’s roll in the book is barely a supporting one.
Still I’m psyched to see this, assuming that we ever get the chance to. White Jazz has been in development hell since LA Confidential first grabbed its bag of Oscars. The Dahlia’s flop won’t help it escape from its fiery domain any time soon. Until someone gets the balls to adapt American Tabloid, this is the next best thing.
