If you dig political thrillers and history, today’s headline is definitely for you. VS Entertainment, helmed by Vincent Sieber, has just acquired the rights to adapt Blood’s A Rover. It’s the latest novel by James Ellroy, also the writer behind L.A. Confidential, which you’ll recall also got the big screen treatment.
Sieber is already hard at work serving as producer for The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag, which began as a novella by Robert A. Heinlein. Sieber will produce Rover with Clark Peterson. Paterson just finished up work on a crime film called Devil’s Knot, another novel adaptation. Ellroy, the author of Rover, will executive produce.
The story is set in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and centers around Joan Rosen Klein, nicknamed the “Red Goddess”. She’s on a mission of vengeance and won’t be hindered by the mafia or political enemies either. Characters clashing with Joan include Dwight Holly, a thug who works for J. Edgar Hoover; Wayne Tedrow, a drug runner connected to the Dominican Republic; and Don Crutchfield, a P.I.
The book was the final one in Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy.
The author has had this to say about his piece:
My most recent novel is — not surprisingly — also my best. The story is no less than the psychic inventory of America from 1968 to 1972. I have no doubt that Clark Peterson and Vincent Sieber will fashion a splendid motion picture from this noir epic.
Ellroy is represented by literary manager Joel Gotler.
The book’s title is taken from the poem, Reveille by A. E. Housman:
Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;
Breath’s a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad; when the journey’s over
There’ll be time enough for sleep.
If the story telling is anything like it was in L.A. Confidential, this could be an A-list film. When it comes to crime thrillers, Confidential remains one of my favorites. It’s built like a web connecting numerous memorable characters. The film version starred Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell and David Strathairn. I’m hoping 2013’s Gangster Squad, starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn will be just as awesome.
Ellroy also wrote The Black Dahlia. That film adaptation, of course, featured Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank. It was interesting material, but not my favorite execution by any means. Story and film were based upon a real life murder.