West Memphis Three film-We’ve talked before on Film Junk about the process of turning a documentary into a fictionalized movie. This happened with Lords of Dogtown, and looks to be happening with the boxing documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, and I’m sure there are many other examples out there. While it does bring the story to a new audience, it often feels somewhat redundant, and more importantly… it seems fake when compared with the documentary. It was announced this week that the story of the West Memphis Three (3 young men convicted of child murders despite a lack of evidence), will be made into a movie once again, after being covered by the two powerful documentaries Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. Dimension Films acquired the rights to Mara Leveritt’s book Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, and will be using the book as source material. The script is being written by Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Urban Legends: Final Cut). Strangely, as noted by Cinematical, Derrickson is also slated to direct an adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. What an odd coincidence.
Source: Film Junk
Source: Film Junk