Hooray for Hollywood (true crime)
As folks return to the theater, true crime pictures get bigger
the true crime that's worth your time
It feels like something changed in 2023. For the first time since early 2020, it feels like folks are putting their weight behind big screen true crime properties, pitching concepts that in recent years might have been spun into streaming series instead. At the same time, movie production in general is picking up — and with that, the inevitable claims of misconduct or worse. (See, that strange Emancipation story from earlier this week.)
Looking at our budget doc this morning, I realized I had enough feature film/seedy neon lights of Hollywood items to fill a whole issue (and then some), so please consider today’s Best Evidence a walk down Hollywood Boulevard, true crime-style. — EB
Feature Film About Prince Andrew’s Bombshell BBC Interview Heads to Netflix, Rufus Sewell Cast As Disgraced Royal [The Hollywood Reporter]
Get ready to lose your crap over this cast: in addition to Sewell as Andrew, Gillian Anderson will play interviewer Emily Maitlis in Scoop, currently in production in the U.K. Other cast members include Keeley Hawes (the female lead in Bodyguard) and Billie Piper.
The film is based on a memoir from interview producer Sam McAlister (that’s who Piper is playing), Scoops: Behind The Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews; I’m already prepared for Pizza Express to return to social media as new generation of memes.
Even if you know the above embedded interview by heart, just let it play for a few seconds. Can’t you hear Gillian Anderson playing this part already?!? — EB
Jon Hamm & Tina Fey Thriller ‘Maggie Moore(s)’ Gets Domestic Deal [Deadline]
It looks like Maggie Moore(s) is wrapped and ready for distribution, which you’d think would give them time to explain why it’s pitched as “true-crime-inspired” but apparently not. Here’s the description:
In Maggie Moore(s), when two women with the same name are murdered days apart, small-town police chief Jordan Sanders (Hamm) finds himself wading through an unlikely collection of cheating husbands, lonely hearts, nosy neighbors and contract killers in an effort to put the pieces of the case, and his life, together.
A case like this isn’t ringing any bells for me, unless you consider The Terminator true crime…
Does it sound even remotely familiar to you? Then again, this alleged true crime connection might be bullshit, based on a press release quote from director John Slattery: “The result is a film that captures a lot of today’s true-crime, stranger-than-fiction culture, buoyed by excellent performances.” That’s kind of like saying Shotgun Wedding was inspired by my own nuptials because my family is weird, too.
There’s no shame in just saying it’s a fake story, everyone! People like fiction! Anyway, expect the movie in theaters this June, and on streaming a couple weeks after that. — EB
Altitude boards sales on true crime docu-drama ‘Speedway’ [ScreenDaily]
Hoosiers of my age group might be excited to hear that this is about Indy’s infamous Burger Chef murders, a 1978 mass slaying at what was then a ubiquitous fast food chain.
It’s an unsolved case that’s been the subject of countless podcasts, documentaries and follow-up reports; in fact, Crime Junkie Ashley Flowers even dedicated a spin-off show to the case, called Red Ball. (That series had a lot of problems, which The Murder Sheet explains far more entertainingly than I can.)
Speedway is characterized as a docu-drama, with a cast of little-knowns: Davida McKenzie, Nya Cofie, Essie Randles and Jo Cumpston. A release date is yet to be announced. — EB
‘Rust’ Charges: Prosecutors Say Alec Baldwin Shouldn’t Have Pointed Gun [The Hollywood Reporter]
I know, Rust isn’t a true crime feature, but its production has certainly become a true crime tale in its own right. In a probable cause statement released last week, prosecutors say that Baldwin should have known that “the first rule of gun safety is never to point a gun at someone you don’t intend on shooting,” which is interesting as previous reporting has stated that during the incident in question, Baldwin (who is also a producer in the film) was — per its script — intended to point the barrel of the gun in the direction of the camera and fire, but with “blank” rounds intended to be released from the firearm.
Poring over coverage of the scrutiny as I have — especially actor Michael Shannon’s musings that perhaps movies that involve guns could be a thing of the past — I wonder if firearms in movies will become as politicized as they are in the real world. If we’re now seeing prosecutors seemingly saying that guns may not be “pointed” during a movie, is that an arguable infringement on artistic expression?
I feel like I’m venturing into Jordan Peterson-ish trolling here, and that’s not a look I like for myself. So I’m gonna stop here, but y’all, this is stuff I’m thinking about and who can I talk about this besides you? — EB
‘Served Like A Girl’ Filmmaker Lysa Heslov Signs With Gersh, Sets Black List True-Crime Tale ‘Sex, Greed, Money, Murder And Chicken Fried Steak’ As First Narrative Feature [Deadline]
Oh, this is exciting! Sex, Greed, Money, Murder And Chicken Fried Steak, which is one hell of a clickbait movie title, is a dramatic take on the story of T. Cullen Davis, an allegedly murderous Texas millionaire.
I feel like we’ve talked about Gary Cartwright’s 1979 Texas Monthly classic How Cullen Davis Beat the Rap before, though I can’t recall why and Substack’s search, well, you know the drill. It sucks. As a reminder, here are the first two paragraphs; I dare you to stop reading after that:
On August 20, Racehorse Haynes, the noted criminal defense attorney, was enjoying a quiet Sunday on his sailboat and perhaps wondering what his most lucrative client, T. Cullen Davis, was up to these days. When the ship-to-shore radio crackled, he found out: Cullen was being arrested and charged with hiring a hit man to kill his divorce judge, Joe Eidson.
“I don’t have the foggiest notion what’s going on,” Haynes told the reporter who had called with the news. The reporter gave him the sketchy details: David McCrory had gone to the FBI with a story that Cullen planned to hire the killing of fifteen people; the FBI staged the judge’s murder and took photographs of Eidson’s body curled up in the trunk of a car, then made a videotape as Cullen allegedly paid McCrory $25,000. “Is this the same McCrory who was involved in Amarillo?” Haynes asked. It was. “It’s curious,” Haynes said.
Davis, who allegedly killed his 12-year-old stepdaughter and got away with it, isn’t one of those fun criminals, which makes the movie’s goofball title a little harder to swallow. If you want to know more about the case, I just saw (I promise Sarah didn’t put me up to this, thank google!) you can get Cartwright’s Edgar-nominated book on the case at a certain beloved true crime bookstore for only $5, worth the price for that cover alone.
Davis has been the subject of a lot of other episodic true crime properties, but as far as I know this is the first drama taking on the case; it appears he’s still alive (though up there, as he was born in 1933) and I have to wonder if his presence on this earth was a gating factor.
Right now, the only name associated with the film is Heslov, who just wrapped a film “addressing the pitfalls of cancel culture in today’s society,” Deadline writes. Uh-oh, that sounds potentially problematic, but I won’t worry about that now and focus on the fact that the Davis story is long overdue for a juicy retelling. — EB
Saint Omer, the True Crime Film That Tackles Motherhood and Migration [AnOther]
Reviews and coverage of recently-released French legal drama Saint Omer aren’t hard to find, in fact, here are some of the best:
“Saint Omer,” Reviewed: A Harrowing Trial Inspires a Complex, Brilliant Film [New Yorker]
Saint Omer [Roger Ebert.com]
Saint Omer review – witchcraft and baby killing in extraordinary real-life courtroom drama [Guardian]
For the Documentarian Alice Diop, Only Fiction Could Do Justice to a Tragedy [NYT]
'Saint Omer' is a complex courtroom drama about much more than the murder at hand [NPR]
But the linked conversation with director Alice Diop approaches the film from an artistic/cinematography angle that we sometimes forget when we’re talking about true crime properties — I, myself, can forget the craft in favor of the mechanics.
But, and I’m not trying to force things into a full circle, maybe we need to start rewiring our brains to approach even fact-based stories like art again. That’s harder to do from a laptop or TV screen, easier in a theater (which many of us aren’t comfortable about returning to just yet, and that is OK!).
But there is so much art and style to some of the best true crime adaptations out there (I’m thinking about the unexpected beauty of When They See Us, for example), and I’m wondering if my pandemic-addled brain was too jumpy to see the craft in The Staircase, with a cast of powerhouse actors that I vaguely listened to while fucking around on my phone.
I’ve developed some bad, distracted, “just the facts ma’am” habits while watching true crime, this brief piece on Saint Omer made me realize. Next time I’m watching a dramatic bit of true crime — for me or for you — I’m dimming the lights and putting my fucking phone in the other room. It can’t hurt, right? — EB
Friday on Best Evidence: Sarah has some tips for your weekend consumption!
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