Movie Matchmaker: Martin Scorsese's The Devil in the White City
by Brian Tallerico

THE RESPONSE

Larson's masterful book was a 2003 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction and won the 2004 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime Book. The book was an international bestseller with The New York Times calling it "A dynamic, enveloping book.... Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel.... It doesn't hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction." and The Chicago Tribune labeling the book as "Engrossing... exceedingly well documented... utterly fascinating." The book was a staple in airport gift shops and on Borders' best-seller shelf for months. For over a year, you couldn't take a Chicago CTA bus without spotting someone reading it. Unlike a lot of popular books, this one was worth the buzz. It's a must-read on every level, and one of the best non-fiction books of the last decade. And it will someday make a kick-ass movie, guaranteed. With or without our help.

THE MOVIE

We're clearly not the only ones convinced that The Devil in the White City could strike celluloid gold, particularly after its enormous success on the printed page. Several Hollywood hotshots have been associated with the film in the past, with rumors first circulating that Cruise/Wagner Productions were ready to start shooting with Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark) behind the lens, a project that Variety reports fell apart due to "creative differences" (did she want to cast Bill Paxton as Holmes?).

Paramount is reportedly still working on the project with Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, and they even have a rumored director, according to Wikipedia - Alexandre Aja. (It should be noted that we could find little verification for this rumor outside of the notoriously WRONG Wikipedia and Movie Jungle, but it's out there and we're nothing if not complete with MM.) In case you’re unfamiliar, Aja is the man who polarized horror audiences with Haute Tension and then sent them running with his remake of The Hills Have Eyes. He’s a talented horror director, who we believe still has a great movie or two in him, but he's the wrong fit for this material. He would focus too heavily on the Holmes half of the story and turn Devil in the White City into a gore-fest, the last thing it should be and something hundreds of directors could pull off. The LAST thing we want is the "torture porn" version of Devil in the White City. (We happen to like the Hostel movies, but we'd be forced to make picket signs to protest Eli Roth's Devil in the White City... and then beat the producer with them).

According to Dark Horizons, David Fincher recently expressed interest in the project and he would be GREAT for this material, but he's got roughly half-a-dozen projects in some state of production and that doesn't even include World War Z, which we're still hoping he'll take a look at someday soon. (Read it, Dave. THIS is the movie for you.) At one point, Leonardo DiCaprio was going to do a film about H.H. Holmes, although not necessarily based on The Devil in the White City, which might have caused some to hold off on the Larson adaptation for fear of two movies about the same nutjob going into production simultaneously. The last thing we need is another "Deep Impact vs. Armageddon" situation.

Movie Matchmaker: Martin Scorsese's The Devil in the White City Page 3