Yeah, the Black Dahlia.
Didja hear there's also a movie coming out about George Reeves? It's called Hollywoodland, Hollywood's original name till the "land" in the famous sign bearing the name was removed or damaged beyond repair or whatever it was. Anyway, it stars, of all people, Ben Affleck as Reeves. He put on an extra 25 or so pounds, maybe 40, I forget which. When I first heard about it I thought no way cuz Ben's face looks nothing like George's and he's way too buff whereas George was kinda barrelchested, kinda like Curt Swan's drawings of Superman used to be.
We screened that movie last summer in White Plains, NY, when it was called Truth, Justice, and the American Way. I think Hollywoodland is a better title.
Was the movie already finished last summer? Why wait an entire year to put it out then? I know films can take a few months with the photography aspect and some more months with post-production but if it was already finished last year then it should've been shown before now. Or maybe they wanted to do some more tweaking of it but even so it could've still been released by now.
Movies can take a while to move from the research stage to the press stage for lots of reasons, though a year is probably at the upper limit of the duration. Usually though it's a few months, or less than a year. The first time we screened Pulse, for example, which comes out today, was on January 25.
Sometimes, though, there are external reasons. We screened O (that Julia Stiles/Mekhi Phifer version of Othello) about a year and a half before it came out because the Columbine Massacre delayed its release.
And don't forget, you screened Shopgirl about a year and a half before it hit theaters last November.
Hollywoodland is one of the few films coming out that I'd pay to see in a theater (that and the upcoming James Bond movie Casino Royale.) Finally, a movie that looks like it was made for adults, a real rarity these days.
The death of producer Thomas Ince in 1925 remains a mystery to this day. William Randolph Hearst was allegedly involved, but used his enormous power to bury the story.
Thanks, Adam, for mentioning Thomas Ince. When I was writing about the Black Dahlia I was also trying to remember that particular incident but couldn't quite grasp it. Charlie Chaplin was also there, I recall hearing.
Another one: The murder of director William Desmond Taylor.
The death of Natalie Wood remains an unsolved mystery, almost 40 years later. A few years back, her husband Robert Wagner (now 90) was named a "person of interest". I don't think the "investigation" went anywhere, though.
The death of producer Thomas Ince in 1925 remains a mystery to this day. William Randolph Hearst was allegedly involved, but used his enormous power to bury the story.
Peter Bogdanovich made a movie, based on that incident, in 2001. That move pretty much followed this idea.
The reason that Louella Parsons got her long career with the Hearst newspapers? Hearst gave her the job to shut her up.