The Gulf region of the United States has seen more than its share of tough times lately, but a rare bright spot has been the fairly consistent stream of film productions bringing attention and, most importantly, jobs to the area. The latest is a rather odd little duck because it appears to be a sequel of sorts to a small film that failed miserably at the box office 11 years ago, and has rarely been heard from since.
If you never saw Heaven’s Prisoners, it’s a fairly standard Big Easy whodunit that is distinguished by a few unique elements, such as Alec Baldwin’s first (and thankfully only) attempt to do a syrupy "N’awlins" accent, in-her-prime Teri Hatcher’s strangely underwhelming full frontal nude shot on the balcony of a huge plantation house, Kelly Lynch’s remains as the recipient of a shotgun blast, and Mary-Louise Pa…..no wait…..Mary McDon….no, that’s not it…..err……..oh, yeah….Mary Stuart Masterson as a rather friendly whore. It’s a blast of a film, actually.
Alas, there are more stories to be told in the rich life of Alec Baldwin’s character, Dave Robicheaux, and Tommy lee Jones will be picking up where he left off. The new film is based on James Lee Burke’s novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (which sounds like the title of a 70’s concept album from the Blue Oyster Cult or something). The plot is a doozy, but here goes: Our hero Dave is trying to link the murder of a hooker back to a male mob boss named Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni. No, seriously.
See, I could stop right there and you’d be buying advance tickets, but you’re getting more than that. Ol’ Baby Feet is co-producer of a movie filming in his parish, and the star of the film – Elrod Sykes – is both an alcoholic and a psychic who sees a black ghost who had been murdered 30 years ago and……you get the idea. Awards await.
French director Bertrand Tavernier will be at the helm when it starts shooting in and around Louisiana in April. No word on a studio/distributor or relase date yet.