Black Dahlia
Wow! Just finished watching the trailer for "The Black Dahlia" (check out the link, but be patient - it may take a while for the trailer to load):
....it looks pretty friggin' good!
Based on the trailer, it feels a lot like "Mulholland Drive" meets "L.A. Confidential" - dark, edgy, on the fringes of (old) Hollywood, and centered around a tragedy that causes controversy within the police department's investigator, and political, ranks.
"The Black Dahlia" is based on actual events that took place in California in 1947 -- the gruesome murder of Elizabeth Short.
Some described Elizabeth as "the girl next door"; a beautiful young girl from back East that came to Hollywood because she wanted to be a "star". Others would describe her as "a confused chick who ran with a bad crowd", or "a driven girl, but afraid of running into herself". She was last seen alive at the Biltmore Hotel (still a beautiful hotel located in downtown Los Angeles - 506 South Grand Ave) - which she left with a gentleman. Her body was later found (I'll leave the gruesome details for the movie...) in the Crenshaw District (in a vacant lot at the intersection of 39th and Norton), near Hollywood, on January 15th.
The case was front page news every day for almost 2 months - the coverage was intense; the public's interest insatiable.
The case has never been solved. There have been more than 50 bogus confessions where mentally ill people, or people with ulterior motives, have claimed to be, or know, the killer -- all have been proven false. There is a 5-drawer file cabinet, plus indexed files and over 5,000 pages of documents related to the case locked away in the LAPD Homicide Division in downtown Los Angeles. The case is still open, and looks to remain that way for an inestimable amount of time. Although there have been times where a deceased person has been named as a killer in such a case, the odds of this case ever being closed seem very low.
So who did kill Elizabeth Short? I'm sure that the movie will have some interesting theories of its own to add to the mix.
On the "industry side" - the film is directed by Brian DePalma (Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, Wise Guys, The Untouchables, .....and other greats). The screenplay was written by Josh Friedman (he also wrote "War of the Worlds", but I won't hold that one against him - I'm willing to bet that his script was much better than the final product!). Josh is really good friends with John August (someone that Rock brought to my attention) and that's good enough for me! Check out Josh's blog at http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/ -- it is definitely worth a read. -- And check out "The Black Dahlia" movie (starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, and Mia Kirshner as the ill fated Elizabeth) when it opens in theaters on September 15th!
....it looks pretty friggin' good!
Based on the trailer, it feels a lot like "Mulholland Drive" meets "L.A. Confidential" - dark, edgy, on the fringes of (old) Hollywood, and centered around a tragedy that causes controversy within the police department's investigator, and political, ranks.
"The Black Dahlia" is based on actual events that took place in California in 1947 -- the gruesome murder of Elizabeth Short.
Some described Elizabeth as "the girl next door"; a beautiful young girl from back East that came to Hollywood because she wanted to be a "star". Others would describe her as "a confused chick who ran with a bad crowd", or "a driven girl, but afraid of running into herself". She was last seen alive at the Biltmore Hotel (still a beautiful hotel located in downtown Los Angeles - 506 South Grand Ave) - which she left with a gentleman. Her body was later found (I'll leave the gruesome details for the movie...) in the Crenshaw District (in a vacant lot at the intersection of 39th and Norton), near Hollywood, on January 15th.The case was front page news every day for almost 2 months - the coverage was intense; the public's interest insatiable.
The case has never been solved. There have been more than 50 bogus confessions where mentally ill people, or people with ulterior motives, have claimed to be, or know, the killer -- all have been proven false. There is a 5-drawer file cabinet, plus indexed files and over 5,000 pages of documents related to the case locked away in the LAPD Homicide Division in downtown Los Angeles. The case is still open, and looks to remain that way for an inestimable amount of time. Although there have been times where a deceased person has been named as a killer in such a case, the odds of this case ever being closed seem very low.
So who did kill Elizabeth Short? I'm sure that the movie will have some interesting theories of its own to add to the mix.
On the "industry side" - the film is directed by Brian DePalma (Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, Wise Guys, The Untouchables, .....and other greats). The screenplay was written by Josh Friedman (he also wrote "War of the Worlds", but I won't hold that one against him - I'm willing to bet that his script was much better than the final product!). Josh is really good friends with John August (someone that Rock brought to my attention) and that's good enough for me! Check out Josh's blog at http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/ -- it is definitely worth a read. -- And check out "The Black Dahlia" movie (starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, and Mia Kirshner as the ill fated Elizabeth) when it opens in theaters on September 15th!
posted by Virg. at 9:31 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, that has to be Ellroy's best book as well. Can't wait to see the movie but it looks pretty intense.
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