Hollywood's James Ellroy enigma
'L.A. Confidential' was turned into a noir classic, but that was an exception for the author's writing, which has proven a daunting challenge for filmmakers.
ONE day in the mid-'90s, the lanky and sometimes manic James Ellroy walked into the brownstone New York office of his publisher, Otto Penzler -- the two were going to a fight that night -- and broke the news: He had just sold the film rights to his novel "L.A. Confidential."
"We were laughing so hard we were crying," recalls Penzler, who had published Ellroy on his Mysterious Press. "I was incredulous -- we both agreed it was unfilmable."
They were right, of course. And they were also wrong. The 1997 Curtis Hanson film of "L.A. Confidential" became an enormous critical hit (if only a moderate success at the box office). It also won two Oscars; one for Kim Basinger for supporting actress and another for Hanson and Brian Helgeland for adapted screenplay.
Only the most die-hard Ellroy fan resented that the film resembled his labyrinthine novel -- with its dozens of characters, thick historical context and overlapping subplots -- only slightly. It's considered one of the finest films of the '90s and one of the greatest film noirs since the genre's 1950s heyday.
But since then, when it comes to movies, it's been more crying than laughing for Ellroy fans.
Friday marks the arrival of Ellroy's first produced screenplay: "Street Kings," a racially charged tale of police corruption and conspiracy starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker. While the film, set in contemporary Los Angeles, lacks the sweep of "L.A. Confidential" and is unlikely to make the same impact, its language, characters, sardonic morality and fast-reversing plot feel like an Ellroy novel.
Ellroy himself, who was once quite critical of the films made of his novels, refused to discuss "Street Kings." But when the novelist -- on a 2006 press tour for director Brian De Palma's cinematic version of his "The Black Dahlia" -- was pressed by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter about that film, he replied with, "Look, you're not going to get me to say anything negative about the movie, so you might as well give up."
Hardly a vote of confidence for either film. It makes you wonder: Why can't Hollywood and the most celebrated crime writer of our time get along?
While most remember only "L.A. Confidential" and "Black Dahlia," Ellroy's writings have provided material for movies for 20 years, including "Cop," a 1988 James Woods-starring version of "Fire on the Moon," which Penzler called "unbelievably awful"; the 1998 bomb "Brown's Requiem"; and 2002's box-office disappointment "Dark Blue," which starred Kurt Russell.
