James Ellroy’s Blood’s A Rover Going Big Screen

It seems Hollywood has suddenly remembered LA Confidential author James Ellroy exists, as Deadline reports that VS Entertainment has picked up Ellroy’s Blood’s A Rover for a film adaptation, while a few days ago I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino signed on to direct a screen version of the author’s The Big Nowhere.

Blood’s A Rover is set in the late 60s and follows the story of Joan Rosen Klein who, against all odds, triumphs against her mobbed-up and politically connected foes to avenge her lost loved ones. Her actions, however, result in changing the course of history for three men: Dwight Holly, who is best known as J. Edgar Hoover’s strong arm goon, a heroin runner building a gambling empire in the Dominican Republic named Wayne Tedrow, and a private-eye named Don Crutchfield. All three men find themselves in pursuit of Klien, and each of them pay a price to live history.

Ellroy commented on the adaptation, “My most recent novel is – not surprisingly – also my best. The story is no less than the psychic inventory of America from 1968 to 1972. I have no doubt that Clark Peterson and Vincent Sieber [of VS Entertainment] will fashion a splendid motion picture from this noir epic.”

The Big Nowhere meanwhile is set in 1950s Los Angeles, when Communist witch-hunts and insanely violent killings are terrorising the community. Three men are plunged into a maelstrom of violence and deceit when their lives become inextricably linked as each one confronts his own personal darkness.