Filming begins tomorrow in Guthrie, New Mexico on “The Killer Inside Me,” an adaptation of the popular Jim Thompson pulp novel helmed by Michael Winterbottom. The long-awaited project had filming postponed, but now looks like it’s a go after financing stalled on what seems like a $10 million sure bet. “Killer” stars Casey Affleck as a deputy sheriff who commits murder, then eventually is compelled to act on darker urges to cement his innocence when the evidence looks suspicious. The material was previously adapted in 1976 by director Burt Kennedy, but knowing the idiosyncratic Winterbottom’s ever-changing style, this is sure to be a barely recognizable retelling of the same story.
The film also stars Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Bill Pullman and Ned Beatty- for a $10 million budget, that’s an impressive collection of names. Alba and Hudson alone are probably two of the very few female actresses who can open a film, and Pullman still has his fans (Beatty, I would imagine- less so). While they are probably working for scale for a chance to work with Winterbottom (“24 Hour Party People,” “A Mighty Heart”), is indie film funding so rough that they can’t score a meager $10 million budget for this? Did Kate Hudson demand a certain type of vitamin water? Does Ned Beatty wear special shoes? Fill us in, people.
Interestingly, another reason filming was pushed back was because Casey Affleck was not only perfecting his accent, but also completing his “documentary” on the evolution of Joaquin Phoenix from actor to rapper. Seeing as how there are no album announcements on the horizon, and Phoenix himself has been fairly quiet, could this project not finished as much as fizzled out? The speculation remains that the whole thing was a hoax, but in what state is the footage already shot? Could it be a fancy special feature on the upcoming “Two Lovers” DVD, or perhaps leaked online?
Filming is set to wrap on “The Killer Inside Me” in late June. Get those spy reports ready, Ned Beatty fansites!
THE KILLER INSIDE ME: A Detective Novel by Tobias Funke
I hope Winterbottom runs as far away as he can from the previous film, which was awful and not true to the book at all. Basically, take everything they did in the previous film and do the exact opposite.
“Alba and Hudson alone are probably two of the very few female actresses who can open a film…”
Say what?
Alba and Hudson are two of the worst, and two of my least favorite current actresses. However, I love Winterbottom’s work, Affleck has been on an acting tear (Gone Baby Gone, Jesse James), and I like pulp-fiction stories such as these. Mixed feelings…
Colin, both Alba and Hudson are often cast as female leads in studio films. Someone out there thinks they’re bankable. Probably moreso than poor Casey Affleck.
Winterbottom is always exciting, and the 70s version with Stacy Keach stinks (the DVD looks like it was filmed off a TV set). This is one of my favorite books ever, and Thompson is a true poet of repressed anger and darkness. Affleck is perfect casting for the happy-on-the-outside, innocent-looking sheriff, and I couldn’t be more excited. I trust he knows something we don’t know about Alba and Hudson, and will use their presence against the audience.