While crime fiction trends may come and go, James Ellroy’s influence has never waned: from the clipped, stylistic repetition of David Peace to the emergence of Nordic Noir, everyone has tipped their hat to LA’s dark master. Peace chose Ellroy as his interviewee when invited to grill a fellow author for the Guardian. A similar tete-a-tete was organised with Jo Nesbø, with Ellroy paying the Norwegian the ultimate backhanded complement by once stating: “I am the world’s greatest living crime writer. Jo Nesbø is a man who is snapping at my heels like a rabid pitbull poised to take over my mantle when I dramatically pre-decease him.”
With the publication of Perfidia this week, the first book in his second LA Quartet, James Ellroy’s stock is arguably the highest it’s been since the 1990s. Back then, it was the film adaptation of his book LA Confidential, the third book in his first LA Quartet. Adorned with a big budget, big stars and two Academy Award wins, LA Confidential bought mainstream attention to the writer’s film noir oeuvre.
With the second LA Quartet underway, there are more film adaptations on the horizon, but this time, it’s Ellroy doing the adapting: he’s writing a remake of the classic 1944 Otto Preminger film noir, Laura.
For Ellroy aficionados, one question remains consistently unanswered: when are we going to finally see a screen version of American Tabloid?
First published in 1995, American Tabloid is perfect Hollywood material; a novel set around JFK’s assassination, with Jack Ruby, the Bay of Pigs, J Edgar Hoover, Jimmy Hoffa and Howard Hughes all making appearances. Bruce Willis certainly thought so, optioning the rights for a TV mini-series in 2002, but his efforts came to naught when the option expired before anything was created.
Next up in 2008 was Tom Hanks and his production company Playtone, which was teaming up with HBO, but the trail went cold again.
Then, in January 2013, James Franco announced that he was planning to both direct and star in a new adaptation. But since then: nothing. The project is still listed on IMDB, but in the limbo state of ‘in development’.
Why did LA Confidential succeed as an adaptation where American Tabloid is failing? For starters, both are complex stories, juggling multiple plots and character perspectives. None of Ellroy’s novels are laden with pages of exposition and his dialogue is always delivered in short, staccato sentences, making them pretty ideal for screenwriters. So why no movie?
While we wait to see if Franco succeeds where Willis and Hanks failed, let’s take the opportunity to revisit Ellroy at his fractious, unpredictable best: appearing on the Conan O’Brien show in the wake of the LA Confidential film. In the words of the clearly discomfited O’Brien: “You’re creeping me out already.”
Guardian Live: James Ellroy will be in conversation with John Mullan on 3 November at The Royal Institution in London. Book now.
