JAMES ELLROY NEWS

"Off the record, on the Q.T. & very ...."

NEW INTERVIEW (5/11/08): Speaking to a New Jersey journalist, Ellroy holds forth on recent events in his life, more lackluster film experiences, the sorry presidential candidate field, volume 3 of the Underworld USA Trilogy and a possible second memoir. Read it HERE.

NEW TITLE NOW KNOWN? (10/22/07): In the haze of movie news related to the White Jazz adaptation (George Clooney is now out of the picture, according to reports, but we don’t do much movie news around these parts anymore), something more significant slipped through. You never want to make too much of these things, but very quietly, over at Ellroy’s literary agent’s site a new offering is listed for James Ellroy: "BLOOD’S A ROVER (Knopf) [forthcoming]." The title appears to come from the A.E. Houseman poem which includes the lines: “Clay lies still, but blood's a rover; / Breath's a ware that will not keep. / Up, lad; when the journey's over / There'll be time enough for sleep.” So there you have it...

JAMES ELLROY & THE ELLROY'S WORLD DAHLIA FILM INTERVIEW (9/4/06): Our third conversation with James Ellroy, conducted shortly before the author headed to Venice for the film debut of Brian DePalma's The Black Dahlia, can be found HERE. James Ellroy reflects on recent events in his life, the legacy of his "signature" novel and the next installment in The Underworld USA Trilogy.

ELLROY RETURNS TO HIS "SMOGBOUND FATHERLAND" (8/16/06): James Ellroy has penned a long, revelatory essay about his life, where he’s been, and where he’s heading. His moving, brutually frank piece penned for The Los Angeles Times can be read HERE. The last couple of pages are particularly powerful, as Ellroy discusses the recent profound changes and events in his personal life, his very recent return to Los Angeles to live, and his vow that after the completion of the final installment of his Underworld USA Trilogy, he will exclusively write Los Angeles-centered novels.

NEW FILM TIE-IN VERSION OF THE BLACK DAHLIA AVAILABLE (8/16/06): Warner Books has updated The Black Dahlia to tie-in with the film adaptation directed by Brian dePalma and starring Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett. The film will be released on September 15, 2006. This special edition also includes a brand new afterword penned by James Ellroy. You can order a copy HERE.

BLACK DAHLIA FILM TRAILER AVAILABLE (8/16/06): Take a sneak peek at the coming film by clicking HERE.

ELLROY PENS INTRODUCTION FOR TOOLE NOVEL (8/16/06): Ellroy book collectors and completionists will want to pick up a copy of F.X. Toole’s just-released posthumous boxing novel, Pound for Pound. James Ellroy provides a marvelous foreword for the book (Ecco, 366 pages, $25.95 Order HERE from Amazon.com). A noted boxing enthusiast, Ellroy earlier praised Toole’s acclaimed short story collection, Rope Burn, which spawned the Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby.

SUICIDE HILL HAS FIRST TRADE PAPER RELEASE (8/16/06): The headline says it: the last volume of the Lloyd Hopkins trilogy, out of print for several years, is now available in a new trade paperback edition. Suicide Hill rounded out the tale of Ellroy’s only (then) contemporary depiction of an L.A. cop and represented a tonal shift in Ellroy’s writing toward something closer to the style of his L.A. Quartet. Order your copy HERE.

ELLROY APPEARS IN DOUBLE INDEMNITY DVD (8/16/06): James Ellroy is one of several noir experts featured in the new high-end, “Special Edition” DVD release of the film noir classic Double Indemnity directed by Billy Wilder. Order your copy HERE.

FEAST OF DEATH TO HAVE DVD RELEASE (8/16/06): The James Ellroy documentary Feast of Death, broadcast a couple of years ago on Showtime, is finally being released on DVD. The documentary takes its name from a dinner featured in the film during which Ellroy and several Los Angeles area law enforcement officers and a journalist discuss the murder of Elizabeth Short.

ELLROY ESSAY IN VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW (7/2/06): James Ellroy has penned a new essay, "My Mother and the Dahlia," that appears in the new issue of the VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW (on newsstands July 1, 2006). Ellroy fans and crime fiction devotees alike will find this compelling reading. By subscribing to VQR online you can also gain instant access to the full essay. The lengthy piece, penned in February by James Ellroy, is a world apart from his earlier GQ essays written along similar themes and dispenses with the staccato, alliteration-heavy writing style that punctuated those pieces. This piece is well with worth seeking out and indicates a great satisfaction on Ellroy’s part for the upcoming Black Dahlia film, particularly the portrayal of "Bucky Bleichert" by Josh Hartnett.

By special permission, the opening paragraph follows:

"Motion pictures pervade the culture far more broadly and immediately than books. It’s a quick-march progression of advance publicity and saturation screen-time. My signature novel will now be a film in wide release. The film will possibly expedite book sales in career-unprecedented numbers. Because of the film, more people may read The Black Dahlia than have read all my other books to date. This affords me a narrative opportunity of stern moment. I will gratefully capitalize on it here. A personal story attends both novel and film. It inextricably links me to two women savaged eleven years apart. These women comprise the central myth of my life. I want to honor them both. I want this piece to redress imbalances in my previous writings about them. I want to close out their myth with an elegy. I want to grant them the peace of denied disclosure and never say another public word about them."

ELLROY INTERVIEWED IN ART IN THE BLOOD (5/15/06): Art in the Blood, a nonfiction book by web master Craig McDonald is now available from PointBlank. This is a collection of interviews with 20 top crime writers. The first interview in the collection is a highly regarded 2001 sit-down with James Ellroy during his Cold Six Thousand Tour. The piece is a wide-ranging discussion of that book, his writing habits, his marriage and his coming projects. Other authors interviewed include George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly and Ken Bruen. Bruen also provides a forward. Order Now: Amazon.com Amazon.UK Barnes & Noble.com

ELLROY TO PARTICIPATE IN NEW COURT TV PROGRAM (1/23/06): James Ellroy is one of several crime novelists (the others being Michael Connelly, Jonathan and Faye Kellerman and Lisa Scottoline) to be signed for a new Court TV series ''Murder, They Wrote.'' Each author will be featured in an episode discussing "four real-life crime stories they turned into books." More details HERE.

ELLROY WEIGHS IN ON DePALMA’S BLACK DAHLIA (1/23/06): Ellroy has reportedly informally weighed in on some aspects of the soon-to-be-released film adaptation of his novel The Black Dahlia. He is reported as describing dailies he has seen as "fucking gorgeous" and the compositions as "amazing," but "he also made a rather bold statement about the film as whole: ‘the big story coming out of this is...Hartnett, who is a revelation.’"

ACCOUNT OF ELLROY APPEARANCE SHARED (1/23/06): James Ellroy recently appeared at a San Francisco Noir event. We asked that someone attending float us some notes about what he said and any news that might have come out of the event. Tony answered our call. His account follows:

"He spoke at the film noir festival at the Palace of Fine Arts last night. He's my favorite writer, so I had to go. He was, of course, as crude, un-PC, and riotously funny as always. A great entertainer. They had a Q & A session after the movie; of course people asked him about the movies from his books. The Black Dahlia is due out in the summer, I think. De Palma's directing, with Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhardt as Bleichert and Blanchard (Eckhardt replacing Mark Wahlberg, who pulled out at the last minute), also with Scarlett Johansson and Hillary Swank.

"Ellroy says that ‘Hartnett is a revelation,’ strong words coming from someone who publicly and strongly criticized the casting of Johansson (and he's right). Hartnett's character, Bucky Bleichert, is the lead character and narrator, and Ellroy, having seen most of the dailies, was clearly happy with him.

"He also answered questions about the actual Black Dahlia murder (interestingly, last night was the anniversary of the killing). On Steve Hodell's book, in which the former LA Detective claims that his father was the killer, Ellroy says that it's the strongest claim to a solution yet, but that there's no way to know, short of a living person confessing.

"On other things — Bruce Willis' production of American Tabloid for TV is dead. His opinion of film noir: the central message of noir, according to Ellroy — ‘You're fucked’ — it was a historical genre that ended in 1959 or 1960. It dealt with issues that happened in the post-war period, and current films that attempt to be noir, even the movie from his book LA Confidential, are historical dramas, not authentic noir. This seems to be the academic and intellectual line on noir these days (I took a class in film noir, and that's the standard comment in most of the literature on it.) He still loves the adaptation of LA Confidential, by the way.

"The crowd applauded when he mentioned that he's moving to San Francisco, having tired of life in the suburbs (Carmel, to be exact).

"He signed books and posters — he signed my poster ‘Fear this poster — James Ellroy’ and was very cordial and accommodating when answering questions. The last book in his Underworld USA trilogy is due out in the spring of next year.

— Special thanks to Tony for contributing.