CBS has put in development police drama Chasers, based on Lorenzo Carcaterra’s bestselling novel of the same name, from NCIS: Los Angeles creator Shane Brennan, Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS TV Studios. Written by Brennan, Chasers centers on a renegade vigilante law enforcement unit made up of 'broken badge' ex-cops – those forced into early retirement – who unite to bring down the most vicious criminals in New York City. Brennan executive produces with Jerry Bruckh…...
- 10/27/2017
- Deadline TV
There's a ton of great movies where one character is shared by two different actors. For example, in the upcoming Rian Johsnon-directed sci-fi action thriller Looper the main character Joe is played by both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. In anticipation of this amazing looking movie Complex has created a Top 10 list of best performances by actors that share a role.
I've included five of the ten entries below, so make sure to head on over to Complex to see the complete top 10 list, and let us know if you can think of any other performances in which two actors played the same character!
Star Trek: Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto
There was a lot of pressure on the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, with rabid Trekkies on one end ready to pounce at any transgression over the franchise's folklore, and nerd-bashers on the other simply ready to dismiss the...
I've included five of the ten entries below, so make sure to head on over to Complex to see the complete top 10 list, and let us know if you can think of any other performances in which two actors played the same character!
Star Trek: Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto
There was a lot of pressure on the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, with rabid Trekkies on one end ready to pounce at any transgression over the franchise's folklore, and nerd-bashers on the other simply ready to dismiss the...
- 9/19/2012
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
20th Century Fox had acquired Sean O’Keefe's action film pitch "Riders On The Storm" says Deadline.
The story, which originated as a video game concept, follows a sophisticated heist crew that pulls off high-end robberies during severe weather events.
O’Keefe and his writing partner Will Staples are working on a rewrite of the Lorenzo Carcaterra novel "Apaches". Richard Leibowitz, John Davis and John Fox are producing.
The story, which originated as a video game concept, follows a sophisticated heist crew that pulls off high-end robberies during severe weather events.
O’Keefe and his writing partner Will Staples are working on a rewrite of the Lorenzo Carcaterra novel "Apaches". Richard Leibowitz, John Davis and John Fox are producing.
- 10/30/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Exclusive: 20th Century Fox had acquired Riders On The Storm, a pitch for an action film that will be written by Sean O’Keefe. The story follows a sophisticated heist crew that pulls off high-end robberies during severe weather events. The deal was worth mid-six figures. Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and John Fox are producing with Richard Leibowitz of Union Entertainment. The project originated as a video game concept hatched by Richard Wickliffe. Union Entertainment was going to turn it into a vidgame, but instead it morphed into the feature pitch that had several studios interested when ICM pitched it. O’Keefe split up with writing partner Will Staples, but they are working together on a rewrite of the Lorenzo Carcaterra novel Apaches for Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. They also wrote World’s Most Wanted for Neal Moritz and Universal and an Alaskan adventure movie for Walden Media and producer Mark Johnson.
- 10/28/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Exclusive: Jeremy Renner, who received an Oscar nomination for the Ben Affleck-directed heist film The Town, is back in bank robbery mode. Renner is attached to star in King of Heists, an adaptation of the J. North Conway nonfiction book from Lion Press about one of the greatest bank robberies in American history. He’ll play George Leslie, who came to New York appearing to be a mannered gent, but secretly put together a crew and masterminded a heist of nearly $3 million in cash and securities from the Manhattan Savings Institution in 1878. Renner and his The Combine partner Don Handfield will produce with Black Bear Pictures’ Teddy Schwarzman. Black Bear Pictures optioned the book and plans to finance development and production. Will Staples will write the script. Staples most recently sold the science fiction pitch Myth to Fox with Sam Worthington attached and Lorenzo di Bonaventura and James Cameron producing.
- 9/20/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
For fans of the Jack Reacher series of pulpy, action drive books, this bit of casting news might send you into a bit of a fit. Deadline reports that Tom Cruise is negotiating for the lead role in Christopher McQuarrie's adaptation of Lee Child's "One Shot" that he would also direct. The writer/director--who penned previous Cruise vehicles "Valkyrie" and "Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol" as well as a draft of "Top Gun 2"--signed on the project last year and it's a series aching to be turned into a franchise. The books, which "Sleepers" author Lorenzo Carcaterra named last year as one of…...
- 6/13/2011
- The Playlist
With a cast that includes names like DeNiro, Hoffman, Pitt and Bacon, how could Sleepers, the 1996 adaptation of Lorenzo Carcaterra’s excellent novel of the same name possibly fail to be anything other than spectacular? Some fifteen years after the film arrived in cinemas to generally good critical reception that largely disproved Carcaterra’s claim that the story- whose beautiful writing finds its equal in Barry Levinson’s exceptional screenplay, and now the film is finally available to buy on blu-ray.
It is difficult to offer any review of Sleepers that does not cast an envious eye towards the phenomenal cast list- including an excellent, understated Robert DeNiro (with his trademark intensity bubbling just out of sight) and an excellent, total-immersion performance by the ever-brilliant Dustin Hoffman. Other highlights include Kevin Bacon’s near sub-human prison guard Nokes, Vittoria Gassman’s authentic and utterly believable mob boss and Ron Eldard’s troubled,...
It is difficult to offer any review of Sleepers that does not cast an envious eye towards the phenomenal cast list- including an excellent, understated Robert DeNiro (with his trademark intensity bubbling just out of sight) and an excellent, total-immersion performance by the ever-brilliant Dustin Hoffman. Other highlights include Kevin Bacon’s near sub-human prison guard Nokes, Vittoria Gassman’s authentic and utterly believable mob boss and Ron Eldard’s troubled,...
- 4/18/2011
- by Simon Gallagher
- Obsessed with Film
The just completed Thrillerfest — think Comic-Con for thriller authors and their fans — featured a lecture that caught my eye. Sleepers author Lorenzo Carcaterra chose the 10 best thriller films made from books, the 10 worst, and the 10 he most wants to see get made. Carcaterra’s Sleepers was turned into a hit film by Barry Levinson, and most of his subsequent thrillers are under option by studios and big producers. His latest, Midnight Angels -- an art history thriller set in Florence -- was just published by Ballantine and is just being shopped now. Carcaterra cautioned that his lists [...]...
- 7/11/2010
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
According to a report from Variety.com, writers Sean O’Keefe and Will Staples of Jerry Bruckheimer Films will be working on a live-action adaptation of Lorenzo Carcaterra’s novel “Apaches.” Focusing on the story of a group of former NYPD officers who form a renegade unit to take down the most truly vicious criminals in the city, the project has been in development since 1997. Marshall Todd (”Bad Boys II”), John Fusco (”The Forbidden Kingdom”) and David Klass (”Walking Tall”) have all previously worked on attempted adaptations of the novel. No other news has been announced yet about the project. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for more “Apache” news. By Costa Koutsoutis (Source: Variety.com)...
- 10/15/2009
- by Costa Koutsoutis
- ShockYa
Jerry ‘let’s blow some shit up’ Bruckheimer has been trying to get an adaptation for the novel Apaches up and running since 1997 when he bought the rights.
The novel was written by Lorenzo Carcaterra and tells the story of a group of 6 NYPD cops that after being pensioned-off decide to continue fighting crime even without the law behind them. They target an evil drug cartel baroness known as Lucia using all their expertise to bring her empire down.
The project has gone through many writers in the past including Marshall Todd, John Ridley, John Fusco and David Klass. It seems now Jerry Bruckheimer has finally found the two writers he thinks will bring the project full circle.
Sean O’Keefe and Will Staples have reportedly been hired to adapt the renegade cop story. I can only assume with both writers cutting their teeth by writing the videogames Pursuit Force and Lair,...
The novel was written by Lorenzo Carcaterra and tells the story of a group of 6 NYPD cops that after being pensioned-off decide to continue fighting crime even without the law behind them. They target an evil drug cartel baroness known as Lucia using all their expertise to bring her empire down.
The project has gone through many writers in the past including Marshall Todd, John Ridley, John Fusco and David Klass. It seems now Jerry Bruckheimer has finally found the two writers he thinks will bring the project full circle.
Sean O’Keefe and Will Staples have reportedly been hired to adapt the renegade cop story. I can only assume with both writers cutting their teeth by writing the videogames Pursuit Force and Lair,...
- 10/13/2009
- by Alex Wagner
- FilmShaft.com
The property has been bouncing around Hollywood for at least a dozen years, but producer Jerry Bruckheimer is intent on bringing Lorenzo Carcaterra's Apaches to the big screen. According to a recent Variety report, Jerry has hired the screenwriting team of Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to take a shot at the source material. And no, it's not about actual Apache warriors. It's actually a crime story about a group of retired cops who go on a vigilante spree when the need arises. If this duo can bang out a workable draft, and that's something a lot of established writers have failed to do, then we may have a cool action flick to check out. The book even has a sequel called Chasers, so there's that to consider.
Movie fans will remember Carcaterra's name from Sleepers, the Barry Levinson film that was based on the author's book, plus he's...
Movie fans will remember Carcaterra's name from Sleepers, the Barry Levinson film that was based on the author's book, plus he's...
- 10/13/2009
- by Scott Weinberg
- Cinematical
Jerry Bruckheimer seems like the kind of guy who gets an idea and makes it happen-- no waiting around for the guy who gave Michael Bay a career. But Bruckheimer has spent 12 years trying to make a movie out of the novel Apaches, about renegade cops in New York City trying to take the law into their own hands. Disney picked up the rights to Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel in 1997, and a whole host of writers have tried to make a movie out of it since then. Now they're hoping they've found the guys who will finally make it happen-- Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples have been hired to adapt the novel, according to Variety, based on their two currently unproduced scripts, World's Most WantedThe Cruelest Miles. The story sounds like a fairly standard justice-at-all-costs crime movie, so it'll be up to O'Keefe and Staples to make something original out...
- 10/13/2009
- cinemablend.com
Jerry Bruckheimer's adaptation of Lorenzo Carcaterra's gritty cop drama Apaches has been stalled in development since 1997, but he'll be damned if he’s going to let it die! And two new writers appear to be just what the doctor ordered. Bruckheimer has brought Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples on board, who have two hot scripts circulating right now, World’S Most Wanted for Universal and an adaptation of The Cruelest Miles for Walden Media. But behind them lies a long trail...
- 10/13/2009
- by Paul Tassi
- JoBlo.com
Back in 1997, my favourite producer, Mr Jerry Bruckheimer bought the film rights to Lorenzo Carcaterra’s book, ‘Apaches’. Carcaterra has previously brought us the novel ‘Sleepers’ which was then turned into an amazing movie by director Barry Levinson. Bruckheimer has had a few different screenwriters give the novel a going over to see if they could turn the book into a movie. So far no one has impressed him and it’s sat on a shelf for the past 12 years.
All that may change though as Variety are reporting that he’s blown the dust off the project and hired Sean O’Keefe and Will Staples to see if they can create a cracking new screenplay.
The novel focuses on a group of six retired NYPD cops who decide to start fighting crime without the help of official channels. They find themselves battling against a drug cartel using their connections to bring it down.
All that may change though as Variety are reporting that he’s blown the dust off the project and hired Sean O’Keefe and Will Staples to see if they can create a cracking new screenplay.
The novel focuses on a group of six retired NYPD cops who decide to start fighting crime without the help of official channels. They find themselves battling against a drug cartel using their connections to bring it down.
- 10/13/2009
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Variety report today that Jerry Bruckheimer has hired Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to take a stab at adapting Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel.
The writing team who already have two scripts doing the rounds and gathering quite a bit of attention, will take on the novel - about a bunch of retired cops who form a vigilante unit to fight vicious criminals in New York City - which has already got the better of numerous screenwriters ranging from Marshall Todd to David Klass.
Don't expect to see the results on the screen any time soon as this project has been lurking at the base of Bruckheimer's slate for over a decade.
Sl
>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Tuesday 13 October 2009...
The writing team who already have two scripts doing the rounds and gathering quite a bit of attention, will take on the novel - about a bunch of retired cops who form a vigilante unit to fight vicious criminals in New York City - which has already got the better of numerous screenwriters ranging from Marshall Todd to David Klass.
Don't expect to see the results on the screen any time soon as this project has been lurking at the base of Bruckheimer's slate for over a decade.
Sl
>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Tuesday 13 October 2009...
- 10/13/2009
- Screenrush
Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples will adapt Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel "Apaches" for Jerry Bruckheimer Productions. The screenplay will be loosely based on the grutty crime novel which tells of a group of retired cops in New York City who create a renegade unit with the goal of bringing down the most vicious criminals in New York. Carcaterra has written and produced episodes of "Law and Order" and his other books include "Sleepers" and "Chasers." O'Keefe and Staples wrote the video games "Lair" and "Pursuit Force."...
- 10/13/2009
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Here's an example of how long Hollywood can keep a project in development hell. Way back in 1997 Walt Disney Pictures bought the movie rights to Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel Apaches, a thriller about a group of retired NYC cops that assemble their own vigilante strike team to take down criminals that are above the law.
Carcaterra's novel has been stuck in Disney development hell ever since even though one of the town's major guys, Jerry Bruckheimer, has the rights. Now Disney is going to see if they can give it another go by hiring screenwriters Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to write a new draft.
Carcaterra wrote a sequel to Apaches called Chasers which was published in 2007. Sleepers, the 1996 drama that starred Brad Pitt and Jason Patric, is based on another Carcaterra novel. He's also gone on to write a couple dozen episodes of Law & Order over the years.
The new screenwriters,...
Carcaterra's novel has been stuck in Disney development hell ever since even though one of the town's major guys, Jerry Bruckheimer, has the rights. Now Disney is going to see if they can give it another go by hiring screenwriters Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to write a new draft.
Carcaterra wrote a sequel to Apaches called Chasers which was published in 2007. Sleepers, the 1996 drama that starred Brad Pitt and Jason Patric, is based on another Carcaterra novel. He's also gone on to write a couple dozen episodes of Law & Order over the years.
The new screenwriters,...
- 10/13/2009
- by Patrick Sauriol
- Corona's Coming Attractions
Apparently power producer Jerry Bruckheimer has been attempting to adapt Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel Apaches since 1997 when Disney beat out Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers in a huge bidding war for the property. While writers like Marshall Todd (Bad Boys II), David Klass (Walking Tall) and many more have given it a shot, it sounds like no one cracked it. Now Bruckheimer is letting another writing duo take a stab at it as Variety reports Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples will try to adapt the gritty crime story about a group of retired renegade cops who take it upon themselves to deliver justice in New York City. The writing duo of O'Keefe and Staples has generated significant buzz after two of their scripts (World's Most Wanted and an adaptation of another novel, The Cruelest Miles) were picked up for production. They are also responsible for delivering The Murder of King Tut...
- 10/13/2009
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
Jerry Bruckheimer has been trying to bring Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel "Apaches" to the big screen for more than a decade, and it now looks like the project is finally moving ahead. At least the writing is.
Variety says Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples will adapt "Apaches," a crime story about a group of retired New York City cops putting together a renegade to bring down the city's most ruthless criminals.
O'Keefe and Staples are also developing several other projects, including "World's Most Wanted" and "The Cruelest Miles." They are among many writers who tried to take a stab at Carcaterra's book.
Variety says Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples will adapt "Apaches," a crime story about a group of retired New York City cops putting together a renegade to bring down the city's most ruthless criminals.
O'Keefe and Staples are also developing several other projects, including "World's Most Wanted" and "The Cruelest Miles." They are among many writers who tried to take a stab at Carcaterra's book.
- 10/13/2009
- by Franck Tabouring
- screeninglog.com
Jerry Bruckheimer has been developing a movie version of the novel Apaches since he acquired the rights to the novel in 1997, but the mega-producer isn't one to give up easy, and has just hired two new screenwriters to have a new crack at the script. Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples are the latest to try their hands at a story of renegade New York cops that's just crying out for a film version.The book, by Sleepers author Lorenzo Carcaterra, sees a group of pensioned-off NYPD cops set themselves a new mission to continue to fight crime even without the law. The six friends - one of whom has mafia rather than cop connections - set themselves against an Arizona-based drug cartel baroness known as Lucia, both sides using their cross-country connections to strike against one another.The plan is to base the new script only loosely on the novel,...
- 10/13/2009
- EmpireOnline
Variety reports that Jerry Bruckheimer Films has hired Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to adapt Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel "Apaches," about a group of renegade cops. The Disney-based producer has been developing the project since 1997, when the studio picked up the book for Bruckheimer to produce for Touchstone as a potential franchise, beating out Warner Bros. and Paramount in a bidding war for the property. The script for Apaches will be loosely based on the gritty crime novel that revolves around a group of retired New York City cops who form a renegade unit to bring down the most vicious criminals in Gotham. Carcaterra followed up "Apaches" with the sequel novel "Chasers," published by Ballantine in 2007.
- 10/12/2009
- Comingsoon.net
True or not -- a good movie or not -- "Sleepers" is an event poised to reap enough boxoffice loot to make everyone involved look like world champions. A truly stellar cast and irresistible story line of "street justice" triumphing over the modern-era legal and penal systems result in a potent combination that puts this Barry Levinson film on the must-see list, although there are numerous obstacles to its achieving universal success with audiences and critics.
Based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 must-read book of the same name, "Sleepers" is a stylistic hodgepodge with three thundering acts and a huge cast. It's long and perhaps too shocking in many scenes for mainstream audiences, but it's not half as effective as Carcaterra's novel-like memoir -- the truth of which has been questioned.
How true can it be when writer-director Levinson changes the age of the central character and sets the final act two years after the date so unmistakably printed in the book? Brad Pitt fans may not give a hoot, but an indication of Levinson's tailoring the material for mass consumption occurs when the youngest of four kids incarcerated in a barbaric delinquent boy's home is now 13 when he lands in a heap of trouble, not 12 as he was in Carcaterra's original.
Readers of the book will also find that much has been softened or only alluded to in over-the-top sequences of abuse and cruelty in the film's central section. Often the toughest-to-stomach scenes are shown in black and white, which in an Oliver Stone film serves as a disclaimer for artistic license with the truth.
Whatever the case, Levinson breezes through the film's set-up with marginal success. If it weren't for Robert De Niro and Vittorio Gassman as the main influences on Hell's Kitchen kids Shakes (Joe Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), John Geoffrey Wigdor) and Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), the sections before and after reform school would be as disappointing as the year in hell the boys endure when they almost kill an innocent bystander in the summer of 1967.
Having played some of modern cinema's most celebrated creeps and killers, De Niro is memorably restrained and yet forceful in the role of Father Bobby, a Catholic priest who rose from the cauldron of New York's working class on the West Side to save those who aren't lost to crime and domestic violence. Likewise anchoring the story's complex thematic interplay between harsh reality and higher morals in crowd-pleasing human characterizations, Gassman is a revelation as all-powerful crime lord King Benny, who figures prominently in the incarcerated quartet's eventual payback.
The narration, courtesy of grown-up Shakes (Jason Patric) -- aka Carcaterra -- is ever-present from the outset, but one learns little about young Michael, John and Tommy. When the baseball-and-book-loving lads are sent to the grim Wilkinson Home for Boys, a foursome of vicious and sexually abusive guards -- led by demonic Nokes (Kevin Bacon) -- make their lives a nightmare. A bloody football game gives the inmates a momentary taste of revenge, but the price is high.
With John Williams' somber score shaking the rafters, the story shifts to fall 1981 (1979 in the book), when gone-bad Tommy (Billy Crudup in a sizzling debut) and John (Ron Eldard) cross paths with unrepentant Nokes in a bar. By far the best scene in the film, these monsters confront their creator and kill him in front of several witnesses. They are soon arrested and put on trial for murder.
Enter assistant district attorney Michael (Pitt), who inspired by the boys' hero Edmond Dantes (literature's most beloved revenger in Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo") plays a dangerous game. He takes on the prosecution's case with the intention of losing and exposing the long-buried crimes that occurred at Wilkinson. Shakes fends off the expected backlash from King Benny and the neighborhood loyalists while winning over Michael's old (and John's current) flame Carol (Minnie Driver).
In the film's most arch development, Father Bobby is recruited as a key witness, but De Niro's mighty presence makes it palatable. Also turning in a terrifically diverting game-saving play is Dustin Hoffman as a bedraggled defense attorney in on the scam. As the film drags on uncomfortably past the two-hour mark, the trial scenes expose the horrid truth when former guard Ferguson (a miscast Terry Kinney) breaks down on the witness stand.
There are so many things wrong with this film -- from questionable casting to its length to Levinson's often numbing assemblage of the imagery at the expense of characterization and coherency -- that one expects there was much left on the cutting room floor, while many moviegoers would have been satisfied with much less than what is left. Still, there are Event Movie moments unlike anything now in theaters, and "Sleepers" may win ardent fans for its challenging -- but badly botched -- agenda.
SLEEPERS
Warner Bros.
In association with
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
a Propaganda Films/
Baltimore Pictures production
a Barry Levinson film
Writer-director Barry Levinson
Based on the book by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Producers Barry Levinson, Steve Golin
Executive producer Peter Giuliano
Music John Williams
Director of photography Michael Ballhaus
Production designer Kristi Zea
Editor Stu Linder
Costume designer Gloria Gresham
Casting Louis DiGiaimo
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shakes Jason Patric
Nokes Kevin Bacon
Father Bobby Robert De Niro
Michael Brad Pitt
Young Shakes Joe Perrino
King Benny Vittorio Gassman
Carol Minnie Driver
Danny Snyder Dustin Hoffman
Tommy Billy Crudup
John Ron Eldard
Young Michael Brad Renfro
Young Tommy Jonathan Tucker
Young John Geoff Wigdor
Ferguson Terry Kinney
Running time -- 147 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 must-read book of the same name, "Sleepers" is a stylistic hodgepodge with three thundering acts and a huge cast. It's long and perhaps too shocking in many scenes for mainstream audiences, but it's not half as effective as Carcaterra's novel-like memoir -- the truth of which has been questioned.
How true can it be when writer-director Levinson changes the age of the central character and sets the final act two years after the date so unmistakably printed in the book? Brad Pitt fans may not give a hoot, but an indication of Levinson's tailoring the material for mass consumption occurs when the youngest of four kids incarcerated in a barbaric delinquent boy's home is now 13 when he lands in a heap of trouble, not 12 as he was in Carcaterra's original.
Readers of the book will also find that much has been softened or only alluded to in over-the-top sequences of abuse and cruelty in the film's central section. Often the toughest-to-stomach scenes are shown in black and white, which in an Oliver Stone film serves as a disclaimer for artistic license with the truth.
Whatever the case, Levinson breezes through the film's set-up with marginal success. If it weren't for Robert De Niro and Vittorio Gassman as the main influences on Hell's Kitchen kids Shakes (Joe Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), John Geoffrey Wigdor) and Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), the sections before and after reform school would be as disappointing as the year in hell the boys endure when they almost kill an innocent bystander in the summer of 1967.
Having played some of modern cinema's most celebrated creeps and killers, De Niro is memorably restrained and yet forceful in the role of Father Bobby, a Catholic priest who rose from the cauldron of New York's working class on the West Side to save those who aren't lost to crime and domestic violence. Likewise anchoring the story's complex thematic interplay between harsh reality and higher morals in crowd-pleasing human characterizations, Gassman is a revelation as all-powerful crime lord King Benny, who figures prominently in the incarcerated quartet's eventual payback.
The narration, courtesy of grown-up Shakes (Jason Patric) -- aka Carcaterra -- is ever-present from the outset, but one learns little about young Michael, John and Tommy. When the baseball-and-book-loving lads are sent to the grim Wilkinson Home for Boys, a foursome of vicious and sexually abusive guards -- led by demonic Nokes (Kevin Bacon) -- make their lives a nightmare. A bloody football game gives the inmates a momentary taste of revenge, but the price is high.
With John Williams' somber score shaking the rafters, the story shifts to fall 1981 (1979 in the book), when gone-bad Tommy (Billy Crudup in a sizzling debut) and John (Ron Eldard) cross paths with unrepentant Nokes in a bar. By far the best scene in the film, these monsters confront their creator and kill him in front of several witnesses. They are soon arrested and put on trial for murder.
Enter assistant district attorney Michael (Pitt), who inspired by the boys' hero Edmond Dantes (literature's most beloved revenger in Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo") plays a dangerous game. He takes on the prosecution's case with the intention of losing and exposing the long-buried crimes that occurred at Wilkinson. Shakes fends off the expected backlash from King Benny and the neighborhood loyalists while winning over Michael's old (and John's current) flame Carol (Minnie Driver).
In the film's most arch development, Father Bobby is recruited as a key witness, but De Niro's mighty presence makes it palatable. Also turning in a terrifically diverting game-saving play is Dustin Hoffman as a bedraggled defense attorney in on the scam. As the film drags on uncomfortably past the two-hour mark, the trial scenes expose the horrid truth when former guard Ferguson (a miscast Terry Kinney) breaks down on the witness stand.
There are so many things wrong with this film -- from questionable casting to its length to Levinson's often numbing assemblage of the imagery at the expense of characterization and coherency -- that one expects there was much left on the cutting room floor, while many moviegoers would have been satisfied with much less than what is left. Still, there are Event Movie moments unlike anything now in theaters, and "Sleepers" may win ardent fans for its challenging -- but badly botched -- agenda.
SLEEPERS
Warner Bros.
In association with
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
a Propaganda Films/
Baltimore Pictures production
a Barry Levinson film
Writer-director Barry Levinson
Based on the book by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Producers Barry Levinson, Steve Golin
Executive producer Peter Giuliano
Music John Williams
Director of photography Michael Ballhaus
Production designer Kristi Zea
Editor Stu Linder
Costume designer Gloria Gresham
Casting Louis DiGiaimo
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shakes Jason Patric
Nokes Kevin Bacon
Father Bobby Robert De Niro
Michael Brad Pitt
Young Shakes Joe Perrino
King Benny Vittorio Gassman
Carol Minnie Driver
Danny Snyder Dustin Hoffman
Tommy Billy Crudup
John Ron Eldard
Young Michael Brad Renfro
Young Tommy Jonathan Tucker
Young John Geoff Wigdor
Ferguson Terry Kinney
Running time -- 147 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/17/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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