Much of moviemaking is about having good instincts combined with a little bit of luck, and for actor Peter Facinelli, it looks like he’s got both in spades.
Deadline reports that Dr. Carlisle Cullen of the “Twilight” franchise is producing an adaptation of Edward MacKenzie and Phyllis Karas‘ book, “Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer For Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob,” that he’s going to be taking out to filmmakers soon. If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you’ll know that Bulger — on the FBI’s top ten Most Wanted list for the past few decades — was finally arrested last week in California. The head of the notorious Boston outfit the Winter Hill gang, Bulger ruled wit an iron fist, stacking up 21 bodies in addition to numerous other charges including racketeering. The great irony here of course, is that Bulger was at one time an informant for the FBI and their relationship was and still is a complex and slippery one. Bulger is also said to have been a major influence on Frank Costigan, played by Jack Nicholson, in Martin Scorsese‘s “The Departed.”
Facinelli actually locked down the rights nine months ago, got financing from Brookstreet Pictures and has a script ready to go by Nick Gordon. So it’s a perfect storm really, with a topic already making headlines and sure to stay there as the case unfolds, money in place and a story that’s just waiting to be told. The film will center around Bulger’s rise and then his disappearance from gangland Boston in 1994 when he went on the run from federal agents. We’re sure this one will attract some strong interest and we won’t be surprised if some big names start coming into play.