Interesting. Although I enjoyed the film version of LA Confidential, it was very different from the novel. Ellroy's enthusiastic endorsement of the Dahlia adaptation makes me keen to see it. When I met Ellroy at a signing the bookstore I worked at hosted (this was pre-International Fame) he told me that all his novels had been optioned. I'm curious how The Big Nowhere would work out onscreen. Ellroy also said that his dream casting would be Albert Finney as Dudley Smith, and Bob Hoskins as Buzz Meeks. I suggested John Cusack for Danny Upshaw and Ellroy seemed intrigued.

Albert Finney as Dudley Smith

I have always pictured Dudley as looking exactly like silverado-era Brian Dennehy, for some reason.

Ellroy's writing style has always bugged the shit out of me. I can never get more than one page into his books.

I finished his short LA Times paean. That's probably the most of him I've ever read. And it bugged the shit out of me too.

At least he didn't do his all-alliteration, all-the-time thing.

That didn't really start until American Tabloid, pup. The early ones have occasional instances of the headline-style alliteration, which is his tribute to the lurid scandal sheets and detective magazines that nurtured his crime fascination as a kid in the 50's & 60's.

I like his writing style. The first book I read of his was "White Jazz". Maybe I just like the dark side of things (I also read a lot of Andrew Vachss). I find it hard to think that the Black Dahlia movie won't be very different from the book just like L.A. Confidential was. They're both very dense books plot-wise, and something has to go. It's not as easy of an adaptation like a John Grisham book would be (and I swear he writes his books with movies in mind). I think Brian De Palma is a good match in this case. I'm looking forward to the movie.

Regarding the alliteration thing: he's always used that in his books that included the L.A. scandal rag thing. In American Tabloid it was more to the extreme, but it's also obvious in L.A. Confidential and White Jazz. I realize that style isn't for everyone, nor is the sort of stream of consciousness blurb style, but it works well for me, and for the subject matter. To me it makes it just a bit more raw.

Anyways, thanks for the post Matteo!

Hm. I assumed after seeing that wretched misfire of a movie, Ellroy would have either had heart attack or put out a hit on De Palma. I guess it's nice he was distracted from the shitty script and high-camp performances; the audience I saw it with at a special preview on Tuesday couldn't get past them, and was literally howling with laughter by the end (which was doubly excruciating because cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond was in attendance for a Q&A session afterwards).

Both Ellroy and Susan Sontag wrote about stealing books from my grandfather's bookstore. Ellroy's reaction when I told him that he had something in common with SS at AWP 5 years ago was: ''What? We're both bald?'' I told TPS's friend Jen my Susan Sontag story at her party, but I'll tell the rest of the NYC bunnies/fites at an October meetup--and scody when I come back.