Oren Moverman made a hell of a movie with The Messenger, and James Ellroy has made a hell of a career with his crime novels. Rampart is a film that will be pairing the two up to the tell the story of the Rampart division of the Los Angeles Police Department, under which the notorious CRASH unit once operated. That unit’s story, overblown as it may have been, was the basis for Training Day and The Shield, and now will serve as the basis for the script that two have supposedly written together.
Overman is bringing back his leads from The Messenger, Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster, and joining them with Ice Cube, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, and Sigourney Weaver. The film will begin shooting in LA at the end of October.
James Ellroy is another writer, like Elmore Leonard, who has seen much of his work churned through the Hollywood machine with very hit or miss results. LA Confidential shows us the best of what can be done with his material, and it’s a pretty stellar benchmark that no other film based on Ellroy’s work has come close to matching. Overman has serious chops though, and as he is collaborating closely with Ellory, working with compelling material, and surrounding himself with such a huge menagerie of talent, there might be the beginnings of a classic crime movie here.
Source | Variety