Who is Bill Anthony Jakob?
Evidently a pathological mystery man who showed up in a small Missouri town with the righteous intention of closing down meth labs, it turned out Jakob was a bank security guard with a phony badge and made national headlines when he was eventually indicted on 23 counts of impersonating a law enforcement officer and fraud charges.
The 38-year-old optioned his life story to producers John Davis, Dan Spilo and David Klawans back in ’08 and now, according to Deadline, writer/director Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential,” “8 Mile,” and “Wonder Boys” among others) and actor/writer/director Clark Gregg (he adapted and directed Chuck Palahniuk’s “Choke”) have signed on to the film.
Hanson is in talks to direct and Gregg will script the story of Jakob, which was originally intended to be a comedy, but apparently that’s now changed, though details are sparse other than the fact that the project is being set up over at Fox Searchlight.
“What nondescript security guard doesn’t dream about putting on a badge, driving in and becoming the man who cleans up a troubled town?,” producer Davis said back in 2008 when the film held a more humorous tone. The issue with the humor is that all the “arrests” that Davis made of meth labs back in the day were tainted, and presumably drug dealers and offenders got off on a technicality.
So it’s like “I Love A Man In Uniform,” kinda? The 1993 Canadian film (named after a Gang of Four song) about a thespian who takes his acting gig as a police officer way to seriously? Probably not, but there are some shades of personality. Maybe “Paul Blart Mall Cop” meets “Breaking Bad”? Frankly, the humorous angle plays and it could be zany in a “The Informant!” sort of manner, but apparently they’re going to go for straight drama instead? Time will tell.
Hanson’s last two pictures, “In Her Shoes” (2005) and “Lucky You” (2007), weren’t his finest works, so let’s hope this new one — if he does eventually sign on — finds him once again in top form.