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Hollywoodland (formerly titled Truth, Justice and the American Way) is a biopic directed by Allen Coulter about a detective, Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), investigating the mysterious death of George Reeves (Ben Affleck), television's Superman. Toni Mannix (Diane Lane), the wife of studio executive Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), has been involved in a romantic relationship with Reeves.
Plot
George Reeves has had a long, successful career from the late '30s, starting with Gone With The Wind and ending with The Adventures of Superman. Despite his fame, he is discontent with being typecast as Superman, and he is even more upset when most of his role in From Here to Eternity is scrapped, due to critics pointing him out as Superman. Actually, this is a falsehood that is often quoted. From the wikipedia page on actor George Reeves it states that "Director Fred Zinnemann, screenwriter Daniel Taradash, and various crew members have all stated for the record that every scene written for Reeves's character was shot and that every one of those scenes is part of the film as released. Nothing of Reeves's work was cut, and director Zinneman even made clear that there was no preview screening, nor were there post-release cuts. Everything in the first draft of the script featuring Reeves's character is still present in the final product as seen in 1953 and as seen today." Where this rumor may have started it that TV version of the film omits George Reeves' parts, as well as other key story line scenes. *
Reeves is also having drinking problems and has engaged in an affair with Toni Mannix, the luscious wife of television mogul Eddie Mannix. He has sunk to the point of doing wrestling matches in his Superman costume, a point from which he can go no lower.
Dectective Louis Simo is assigned to investigate Reeves' strange death, interested only because his young son Evan looked up to Reeves as Superman. While delving further into the case, he makes even stranger discoveries about the actor's private life, but the affair with Mannix's wife may hold a key to the truth...
Trivia
- Nicole Kidman was considered for the role of Toni.
- Joaquin Phoenix tested for the role of Louis Simo. This is the second time Phoenix and Brody have lobbied for the same role; the first time being for the part of Lucius Hunt in The Village.
- Benicio Del Toro also read for Louis Simo, but the part went to Adrien Brody. Interestingly enough, Brody lost the role of Jackie Boy to Del Toro in Sin City.
- Hugh Jackman read for the part of George Reeves, but he turned it down due to conflicts with the shooting of The Last Stand.
- The opening credits of the film are based on those of the original television show. The reason the credits were shot again was because Warner Bros. refused to let them use the original credits.
- The film's original title was changed in February 2006 after Warner Bros. Pictures threatened to file legal action over the use of a well-known slogan associated with their character Superman.
- During the years the script spent in development hell, it was praised as "one of the best scripts unproduced."
- The film's title, Hollywoodland, may be a reference to the Hollywood sign as it originally appeared.
- While it was originally reported that the Superman costume in the film is missing the "S" because Warner Bros. owns the film likeness of Superman, on July 6th, 2006, the web site www.aint-it-cool-news.com reported that Focus Features is forbidden from showing it in promotional material but that the costume will sport the iconic letter "S" in the film.*
Footnote
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Reeves
2. http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23780
External links
- Online trailer (Requires Quicktime)
"Hollywoodland (film)"