Eckhart Joining Black Dahlia?
Core star reportedly reuniting with Swank
March 11, 2005 - De Palma a la Mod reports via BrianDePalma.net that Aaron Eckhart has replaced Mark Wahlberg in the cast of director Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia. The noir mystery based on James Ellroy's novel begins filming shortly in cost-effective Bulgaria.
The project would reunite Eckhart with his co-star from The Core, Oscar-winner Hilary Swank. Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett also star.
As Variety has said, The Black Dahlia "revolves around two boxers-turned-cops investigating the brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, a crime that rocked 1940s Los Angeles."
My review of Josh Friedman's old draft can be found here.
In related news, the Los Angeles Times chatted with Dahlia exec producer Avi Lerner about shooting the $68 million indie film in Bulgaria. "A good carpenter in L.A. costs $2,000 a week, but a carpenter in Bulgaria costs maybe $250 a week," said Lerner.
"Since a normal salary in Bulgaria is $150 a week, we're paying them more money than they could normally earn, so I'm helping their economy and saving us money."
Meanwhile, production designer Dante Ferretti advised Bloomberg.com that Black Dahlia is "a completely different story" than his last set-in-L.A. period pic, The Aviator.
"Howard Hughes's story was set in glamorous places. The Black Dahlia is about very low society. I did a lot of research in L.A.'s old police stations and poor neighborhoods."
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/359/359218p1.html