Ellroy Turns ’77’

James Ellroy, author of L.A Confidential, is to write an original screenplay called 77. A number of his books have been made into films, including L.A Confidential, Cop and Brown's Requiem, but this will be his first stand-alone script. Ellroy won't be straying too far from the dark subject matter of his novels, which tend to focus on murder and corruption, and where the cops and criminals aren't too far removed from each other. The screenplay for 77 will link two real-life events from the early '70s. The murder, still unsolved, of an LAPD officer will be examined alongside the infamous televised shoot-out between the police and the Symbionese Liberation Army (the terrorists who kidnapped Patty Hearst). The film will be produced by Dick Wolf, who is responsible for the hit television show Law & Order. He told Variety "James is a legend... he has captured the essence of Los Angeles and the LAPD better than any other writer". And Ellroy said of the producer of his first "epic-length film script", "Dick Wolf is the king of television crime, and I have no doubt that he will soon become the king of feature film crime". No word as to when the project might begin filming, but in the meantime Ellroy's latest novel, The Cold Six Thousand is out later this year.