Two tales of New England's darker side are coming to movie theaters.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Robin Williams has tentatively signed up to play a corrupt politican in "The Prince of Providence," a bio-pic drama about Providence R.I. mayor Buddy Cianci. The film's based on Michael Stanton's 2003 book of the same name and will star Oliver Platt as Cianci. David Mamet wrote the script and longtime Mamet collaborator Michael Corrente (the wonderful "Outside Providence", the less so "Brooklyn Rules,") will direct; shooting starts in Providence later this summer.
The film's been a long time in the making; as this pungent New York Observer article from 2005 notes, Paul Giamatti was at one time considering playing Cianci. Guess John Adams felt like a better fit. A recent blog entry from the Providence Journal, where Stanton has won a Pulitzer for his investigative journalism, mentions that Nic Cage and Russell Crowe were in consideration too. I don't know -- looking at those pics above proves that no one may wear Buddy's hair as well as Platt.
Also, director Brian DePalma has signed on to direct "The Boston Stranglers," based on Susan Kelly's 1996 non-fiction book that claimed that Albert DeSalvo was not the man who murdered 13 Boston-area women between 1962 and 1964 -- or at least not the only man (thus the title). No cast or start date has been set. Think DePalma will be able to replicate the terse Joe Friday-meets-the Hub vibe of Richard Fleischer's 1968 "The Boston Strangler," starring Tony Curtis (see below)? He can't do any worse than "The Black Dahlia" or "Redacted."
