While it's unlikely to let it go entirely, Paramount Pictures has let the rights option to graphic novel TORSO lapse, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Director David Fincher, after securing 13 Oscar nominations for THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, is still attached to the project.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Andreyko, TORSO is a crime thriller that follows the true-life adventures of Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness after he helped lock up gangster Al Capone, including the pursuit of the Cleveland Torso Murderer from 1935 to 1938.
Fincher's reputation as an expensive perfectionist might have ruffled feathers at Paramount, who are tightening their belts. But they've worked with Fincher twice now (first with him on ZODIAC), and reports say they will likely come around. If not, other studios would surely jump at the chance to nab Fincher and the project. Fincher has been said to be very interested in going ahead on the film.
"It's a weird and odd situation," Bendis said. "We heard it was greenlit one day, then the next we heard it wasn't. Hopefully, it'll have a happy ending."
Bendis and Andreyko wrote the script for the comic back when SPAWN creator Todd McFarlane first optioned the rights at Dimension. Then, producer Don Murphy came in, went to producer Bill Mechanic at Pandemonium, which brought in Fincher, who had made FIGHT CLUB when Mechanic was head of 20th Century Fox.
The team took TORSO to Paramount in January 2006, which hired Ehren Kruger to adapt it. Matt Damon and Casey Affleck have been interested in starring.
Because Ness' story really happened, it could be foreseeable that Paramount could develop a public-domain version, but in light of the legal battle between Warner Bros. and Fox over WATCHMEN, the studio would be not likely to take that risk.
