The News: Whose Gangster is it Anyway?

Idea man Steven Zaillian (Photo: WireImage)

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--Via Kris Tapley's Red Carpet District blog at Variety, the gang at Vulture is eight ways of indignant about house scribe Mark Jacobson's 2000 article "The Return of Superfly" -- to which the closing credits of American Gangster attribute its screenplay's basis -- not getting appropriate Oscar love from Universal. Turns out the studio is campaigning Gangster for an Original Screenplay nomination for Steven Zaillian, a not-totally surprising move considering the scribe's sizable, sensitive ego and his ownership of a tired old Adapted Screenplay prize for 1993's Schindler's List. Among the rationale: Russell Crowe's character, Det. Richie Roberts, was only a bit player in Jacobson's piece. The journalist in me is a bit unsettled by this until I realize Zaillian doesn't have a chance in either category. So -- moving on.

--Today in Overdramatic Generalizations, from a blog called The Publishing Contrarian: "Who in the world pulled Starting Out in the Evening from the bookshelf and deemed it worthy of a film? Did anyone take the time to get past the hype in Customer Reviews on Amazon and read some of the less than laudatory comments about Starting Out?" Yikes! Sounds like someone's got her protective helmet strapped on a little too tight today.

--Ray Pride has word about Jim Jarmusch's latest, which will take the one-time bard of downtown disaffection to Spain for a project starring frequent collaborator Isaach De Bankolé. The Limits of Control will be distributed by Focus Features and shot by Christopher Doyle; production begins in February.

Posted at November 1, 2007 1:56 PM