Michael Mann does Texas
Bayou murder mystery gets the Hollywood treatment
- Photo by Axelle Woussen
It's been an open question among law enforcement in the towns along I-45 between Galveston and Houston: Who is responsible for the disappearances and murders of dozens of young women in the industrial corridor since 1971?
Time and advancements in criminal justice technology haven't provided any answers, but it looks like Hollywood might be about to write a new ending.
Michael Mann—the man behind pictures like The Insider, Public Enemies, Ali, Collateral, Heat and Last of the Mohicans—is scheduled to produce a movie titled The Fields (formerly The Texas Killing Fields) based on the murders. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (of Grey's Anatomy and Watchmen fame) will play a a detective from New York alongside a local Texas investigator, portrayed by Sam Worthington, the breakout star of James Cameron's already all-time blockbuster Avatar. According to Variety, the duo will take on "a series of unsolved murders in industrial wastelands surrounding Gulf Coast refineries, where as many as 70 bodies have turned up over the past two decades. Together they wage a war against the unknown assailants."
The film will be directed by Mann's daughter, Ami Canaan Mann, with a screenplay written by former DEA agent Don Ferrarone. Shooting is scheduled to begin on April 5, but it won't happen in or around Galveston. Instead Louisiana will serve as a stand-in (we're guessing because of the tax breaks). The film scheduled to be released in 2012.
[via KHOU]