HOME TRAILERS 2013 SCHEDULE PODCASTS REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS SHORT FILMS NEWS FEEDS ABOUT APPS

LATEST NEWS

'I Am Love' Director Gets 'L.A. Confidential' Prequel 'The Big Nowhere'

by Ben Pearson
September 10, 2012
Source: The Playlist

Though he's stuck mostly to documentaries and short films throughout his career, Italian director Luca Guadagnino made a splash with the Tilda Swinton-starring I Am Love back in 2010, which even made Quentin Tarantino's personal list of favorite films of that year. Now he's attached to a project that will really turn some heads, as Deadline reports that he's developing an adaptation of James Ellroy's book The Big Nowhere, a prequel to L.A. Confidential, which was adapted for the screen in 1997. The Big Nowhere is set in 1950 L.A. and features intertwining storylines involving some characters we saw in L.A. Confidential.

The Playlist has a good write-up of this story, reminding us that The Big Nowhere is one of the four books in Ellroy's "L.A. Quartet" series, following The Black Dahlia (which Brian De Palma adapted back in '06), and preceding both L.A. Confidential and the last entry, White Jazz (which Joe Carnahan has been trying to get off the ground for years). The story follows Deputy Danny Upshaw as he hunts a serial sex killer, crossing paths with the likes of bruiser Buzz Meeks and morally questionable police chief Dudley Smith from L.A. Confidential, with the Red Scare playing a big part in the proceedings as key players are turned in for ties to Communism.

There isn't a writer attached yet, and Guadagnino has another project lined up to go before this one, but Harry Potter bigwig David Heyman is producing The Big Nowhere, so perhaps he can use some of his juice to get this project off the ground and into production soon. I don't know much about Guadagnino's work, so we'll have to wait and see if he's the right guy to bring us another hard-boiled story set in the heart of Los Angeles with corruption, murder, and all the best elements that film noir lovers could ask for. Cool?

Filed under Development, Movie News

From around the web:

racquetman

If they actually make this movie, and it is anywhere near as good as L.A. Confidential was, then, ya, cool.
Capo

I think it would be cool if they got Russell Crowe to play Dudley Smith in this version. He's a little young but I think it would be this cool weird connection to L.A. Confidential. Though James Cromwell could probably still play that role well.
- plug it
  
  it doesnt need a weird connection to LA confidential. its blatently connected by the characters in it.
jimoakley

We need to see James Cromwell as Dudley Smith once more. And I really hope they keep Buzz in the story. I'd love to see some Confidential nods and cameos. Oddly, I always imagined Guy Pearce as Upshaw when I read the book, but he's Exley now.