March 28, 2024

Knox Case Tweaks Clooney’s “Monster”

After the New York Film Festival premiere of “The Descendants” on Sunday night, George Clooney spoke with The Playlist about his future projects.

Clooney says he’s no longer part of the heist film “Belmont Boys” and has opted not to direct the narrative film adaptation of the 2005 doco “Our Brand Is Crisis”.

One film he did speak at length about though was his adaptation of Douglas Preston’s true-crime book “The Monster of Florence”.

The book follows Preston who moved to Italy in 2000 and learned that an olive grove on his family’s new property had been the scene of a brutal murder. Teaming with Italian journalist Mario Spezi, Preston began investigating the crime which was part of a series of eight double homicides between 1968-1985.

The pair became embroiled in a web of intrigue that grew all the more sinister when they themselves were implicated by the authorities for the slayings.

Christopher McQuarrie penned the adaptation which deals more with the writers uncovering and becoming a part of this grim story than focusing on the serial killer himself.

No director is yet set and Clooney says he definitely won’t be directing the picture. He is however set to play Preston.

More surprisingly though is the recent appeal overturning the guilty verdict in the Amanda Knox case has affected the film’s script as the prosecutor in the ‘Monster’ case is the same one who presided over the Knox trial.

“I was very happy for that verdict. Because I was one of those people who thought Amanda Knox was probably guilty, and then I ended up changing my mind. And it will affect our screenplay, that verdict—and that mentality: get a conviction at all costs—because it’s the theme of the book and the screenplay” says Clooney.

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