Production Weekly stayed busy yesterday, dropping several new updates including one which reported that “The Messenger” director Oren Moverman will be directing the crime drama “Rampart,” which may reunite him with “Messenger” cast members Woody Harrelson (who was nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar for his role) and Ben Foster. Now, ioncinema pitched in with more info on the project — it was originally a vehicle for Stephen Frears.
“Rampart” was scripted by James Ellroy and deals with the LAPDs Rampart Division, which was involved in a massive corruption scandal in the early 1990s. More than 70 officers were implicated and many were convicted. According to Wikipedia, “the convicted offenses include unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting of evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and covering up evidence of these activities.” This is familiar territory for Ellroy, whose LA-focused noirish novels were adapted into Curtis Hanson’s excellent “L.A. Confidental” and Brian De Palma’s disastrous “Black Dahlia,” among others.
What does this mean for Moverman, who has most recently been attached to the Kurt Cobain biopic? Well, one of two things — either a). he’s either off that project (and did sound tentative about his involvement recently) or b) (and more likely) it’s still in development and he can knock “Rampart” out of the park before moving on to the Cobain story. We here at The Playlist have a lot of love for “The Messenger” and the possibility of Harrelson and Foster reuniting with Moverman is a great move in the movie books. We’re sure we’ll hear more on this as the players are definitively confirmed. You can bet we’ll have our fingers crossed.
Sylvester Stallone was once going to do a similarly titled, project called, “Rampart Scandal” back in 2003, but the two projects had nothing to do with each other. Stallone’s was about a detective investigating both the Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. slayings. That obviously never happened. Thanks to Russ at /Film for that reminder.