I get that a studio adapting a news or feature article is the easiest way to tell a true story, but when we hear that William Monahan is going to adapt an article that doesn’t yet exist, doesn’t that pretense go out the window? Eh, I guess it doesn’t matter much, as it’s just one of those business things.
Anyway, the unpublished, untitled Playboy article Monahan will be “adapting” for The Departed and Next producer Graham King and Paramount tells a pretty interesting story. It’s about a drug dealer who, instead of taking a prison sentence, goes undercover in a mental ward to try to pry information out of a serial killer.
I can get on board with that, as long as our serial killer isn’t just a new iteration of Hannibal Lecter or John Doe.
If you want to read the article, you may or may not be in for a bit of a wait, as it will be published sometime between now and December. The fact that the article hasn’t yet been published also prevents me from making the typical “I guess somebody does read the articles!” joke, which makes me sad.