Life's not exactly what you'd call a bitch for James Ellroy, Los Angeles crime novelist extraordinaire and co-screenwriter (for the first time) of next week's Keanu Reeves/Forest Whitaker cop thriller Street Kings. Nevertheless, as evinced by today's LA Times profile, the new film is one of the few Ellroy projects — after one hit (LA Confidential) and a succession of misfires (The Black Dahlia) and lost causes (White Jazz) — for which anyone has sustained any hopes coming out of the gate.

We have our own theories about why Ellroy adaptations have yet to explode the author's cult, but we defer this morning to noted industry observer Scarlett Johansson, who seems to suggest that kids these days just don't get it:

Johansson, who played '40s vamp Kay Lake in Black Dahlia, talked about how difficult his words were to put across. "As a modern actor, we made this movement that started in the 1970s. ... Realism and the gritty kind of natural technique. It was interesting to pair that with the dialogue so stylized and impossibly unrealistic, saying things like, 'How could you, Dwight, how could you?' We never say those things. That kind of dialogue is so dated."

"Interesting" naturally meaning "impossible," if you've seen Brian De Palma's atrocious Dahlia adaptation. In any case, it doesn't pay for Ellroy to comment on the curse that's afflicted the majority of his films; during an interview prior to Dahlia's release in 2006, he told me, "Money is the gift no one ever returns," and God knows his aggression won't extend to elliptical, snappy second-guessing of Reeves' leading role in Kings. We know it's business, but why must Ellroy — and his adaptees — always leave us wanting more? And not in a good way?

Hollywood's James Ellroy enigma [LAT]

9:00 AM on Fri Apr 4 2008
By STV
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18 comments

Comments

NotReadyForPrimeTime at 09:11 AM on 04/04/08
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It was not the dialog which was awful in "The Black Dahlia". It was the plot.
brechtgirl at 09:37 AM on 04/04/08
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How awesome that she's taking partial credit for shit that was done nearly 40 years ago.
whoneedslight at 09:37 AM on 04/04/08
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@NotReadyForPrimeTime:

And the acting.
mockingbird at 09:52 AM on 04/04/08
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I think my head actually just exploded at the idiocy of ScarJo. An actor can put across any dialogue, that's the fucking job, one which she proves over an over she is unqualified to do. Pouting and having a great rack isn't acting, or Anna Nicole would have won an Oscar.

And "Dahlia" was just such a waste of good material. That book scared the bejeebus out of me, and there's enough between it and the real story to have made for a great movie.
Tiger_Tanaka at 09:56 AM on 04/04/08
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Uh...LA Confidential ring a bell for you? I'm guessing you'd turn down work with Mamet as well...
rabbitboy at 10:02 AM on 04/04/08
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Team ScarJo!!
Indiana Bento and the... at 10:24 AM on 04/04/08
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I'm to good for Scarlett as well......but I'm willing to lower my standards for her
brechtgirl at 10:54 AM on 04/04/08
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@Tiger_Tanaka: And it's not like Woody Allen has ever been known for unrealistic dialogue.
Baronzemo at 11:39 AM on 04/04/08
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rabbitboy, sorry even Scar-Jo's rack is no match for the Demon Dog. "That kind of dialogue is so dated" was her criticism of Shakespeare & Eugene O'Neill, too. NotReadyForPrimeTime, Brian DePalma has revealed himself as a cinematic abortionist with the alterations made to "Black Dahlia" As for "Street Kings" I didn't think I'd like it but I gotta say Ayers has stepped up to Curtis Hanson's plate & made a great Ellroy movie...when a police character pulls out the film's 1st "throwdown piece" I wanted to applaud.
WasatchMan at 01:15 PM on 04/04/08
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Someday, someone is going to make the great James Ellroy movie. And it is going to scare the hell out of everyone so much that it will flop at the box office, and take twenty years to be recognized as a masterpiece. That's just the way it works with maniacal geniuses.
OldTowneTavern at 01:32 PM on 04/04/08
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@WasatchMan: It happened already. It's called "One False Move". Only, Ellroy didn't write it.
DrFeelgood at 03:23 PM on 04/04/08
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Wow!
Nothing like explaining why your limitations as an actor are part of some "movement" back in the '70's.
Selling bad/awkward/stilted dialogue is what an actor gets PAID for.
Anyone can deliver the gold.
What a dumb bunny.
Little Mintz Sunshine at 04:54 PM on 04/04/08
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Frankly, I was never under the impression that Scarlett is actually an "actress" considering her abilities run from "looks around, confused" to "stares bewildered at" to "parts her quivering lips" while taking very deep breaths.
raincoaster at 07:29 PM on 04/04/08
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@mockingbird: Exactly. "Because we're so modern, this old dialogue is totally out of place in a movie set in the Forties." Thanks, meat puppet. Now shut up and look pretty.
gwendemarco at 07:30 PM on 04/04/08
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Scarlett is currently working on a rewrite of Shakespeare's As You Like It.

"No jewel is like Rosalind" has been rewritten as "Yeah. She's hot." in order to make the play more like now and less like old.
moondawg9 at 04:10 PM on 04/05/08
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Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a Damn!
HappyBlues at 10:37 AM on 04/06/08
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I don't know about you folks, but for me Scarlett "makes a movement" every time she opens her mouth onscreen.
belltolls at 11:42 AM on 04/06/08
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Wooden acting or wooden dialog? The Dahlia movie that has yet to be made is one that follows all the scenarios and all the evidence dramatically.