Originally posted on my Indianapolis Star blog "Tales of a Hoosier Ex-Pat"
Several years ago, my friend Jeff told me that he had a great idea for a screenplay. It was a spoof of a zombie movie.
"It's time for one," he said.
Then he went to see a movie called Shaun of the Dead, and he saw his movie play out in front of him. Jeff sat there in horror as he saw three or four things that he had already written in his unfinished screenplay (all of which prompted great laughter by the audience.)
He told me that it was the worst feeling he ever had as a writer, and he hoped that it would never happen to me.
Let's fast forward to 2007. I had started to put together my first feature length screenplay. It was the result of nine years of research. I had downloaded FBI files, and read biographies. I was 30 pages into a screenplay titled Public Enemy. It started in Tucson, Arizona January 30, 1934 as John Dillinger was set to be extradited to Indiana to face charges that he killed a police officer during a bank robbery in East Chicago.
I was feeling pretty good about the story and what I had written, until D and I went back to Indiana for the holidays. As we were on the way back to Minnesota, I heard a report on Wisconsin Public Radio about how Badger State favorite son, Michael Mann, was going to be in the state shooting a film. I like Michael Mann, so the story caught my attention.
"The untitled film stars Johnny Depp and focuses on the life of John Dillinger."
What did that reporter say?
It was just another excuse to hate Wisconsin.
I immediately put the project on the back burner. My friends who were aware of the project urged me to reconsider, and to continue to work on it.
"It could be totally different than what you're writing," DeAnna said. "He could screw it up. Michael Mann isn't infallible. Look at Heat."
I held on to that hope, but still had the project in suspended animation. I would take a wait and see approach.
Then I saw the trailer, and I wept.
Like Jeff, I sat in horror as I saw one scene exactly as I had envisioned, and one as I had written. I knew what he was feeling in that California movie theater five years ago.
I haven't seen Public Enemies yet. But I will sometime, and I'm going to be keeping notes. I know the history, and I will be the movie's toughest critic. I already have some problems with it. Christian "Good For You" Bale is not who I would cast as Melvin Purvis. And for as much as I love Marion Cotillard (she would be in a laminated list), who is certainly beautiful enough to play Billie Frechette, I still can't figure out what her accent is all about. Research, Michael!
Until then, Public Enemy is a dead project. It may be resurrected in 10 or 15 years, but I don't hold out much hope for it.
