Nick Cassavetes is loath to label his new movie -- ''Alpha Dog,'' about a group of suburban, teenage gangster wannabes who corner themselves into committing cold-blooded murder -- a mere cautionary tale about wayward youth and missing-in-action parents.
At the very least, though, it's a cautionary tale for writer-directors thinking of tackling a breaking news story as their next subject.
When he set out to chronicle the life and alleged crimes of Jesse James Hollywood, a San Fernando Valley man who prosecutors say kidnapped and ordered the execution of Nicholas Markowitz, 15, in 2000, Mr. Cassavetes had reason to think he was on stable ground. Four of the five men indicted were behind bars. Mr. Hollywood, on the lam, had eluded the best efforts of the F.B.I. and the television show ''America's Most Wanted'' and seemed gone for good.
But with half of his movie filmed and already millions of dollars over his starting budget of $9 million, it was with a little chagrin, much shock and mixed feelings for the many people he had interviewed along the way -- perpetrators, witnesses and victims -- that Mr. Cassavetes turned on the news last March to see that Mr. Hollywood, then 25, had been arrested in Brazil and would be coming home to stand trial in Santa Barbara.The easy, if costly, part of what came next was revising his movie, which stars Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone: Mr. Cassavetes tossed several days' and about $500,000 worth of film, and added some more, to tailor his thinly veiled story -- about a tough-talking marijuana dealer named Johnny Truelove, played by Emile Hirsch -- to the newly changing facts.
But what has given new meaning to post-production snags has been Mr. Cassavetes's continued entanglement in the legal battle being fought by Mr. Hollywood's very real-life prosecutor, Ron Zonen, and defense lawyer, James Blatt. Last summer, he was subpoenaed when Mr. Blatt accused Mr. Zonen of misconduct and sought unsuccessfully to have him removed from the case for cooperating with Mr. Cassavetes and giving him access to nonpublic records. In November, a judge ordered Mr. Cassavetes's researcher, Michael Mehas, who is writing a book on the case, to turn over notes and tapes from his interviews to the defense. And Mr. Blatt is now threatening to seek an injunction against the release of Mr. Cassavetes's movie -- which is to have its premiere on Jan. 27 at the Sundance Film Festival and is set for release by New Line -- lest every potential jury member go see it and be tainted.
The very interesting details are here from David M. Halbfinger of the New York Times via LexisONE.com.