Last September, The New York Post reported that Mickey Rourke was the man set to play mafia hitman Richard "The Ice Man" Kuklinski in a biopic based on Phil Carlo's biography. Carlo was quoted saying that Rourke believes the role to be his Raging Bull and that the production would begin in spring 2010. It's only now that the casting has been made official.
THR reports that Rourke has officially been cast to play the gangster who murdered more than 200 people in his lifetime. David McKenna, who wrote Blow and American History X is writing the screenplay. The story will examine the double-life led by Kuklinski who worked as a professional assassin for 40 years while also maintaining the cover of a family man in New Jersey.
After initially hearing about the project back in September, I looked into a bit of Kuklinski's past and I truly don't understand why we are glamorizing the man with a feature film. Kuklinski was a monster who started killing people for fun in his teens, including more than 50 homeless people. The most human quote I could find from the guy said that he would never hurt a child and "most likely wouldn’t kill a woman.” Obviously there have been been plenty of gangster films in history. In fact, some of the greatest films of all time, from the Godfather films to Goodfellas are proud members of that genre. But I truly don't see the point in making a film about this inhuman beast.
