  I like the books of James Ellroy. His fantastic gritty portrails of 40s - 60s politics, whether it be in the LAPD or the White House, mixing fact with fiction, are some of the best noir books you can read. His most famous novel is La Confidential , the film version of which starred Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger and Guy Pearce. The critical and commercial success of the film means that Ellroy's books would be a prime source of material for a successful picture.
One of the best books he wrote is The Black Dahlia . The book is based on a real murder in 1947, when the body of a girl was found in an alleyway in LA, cut in half. The book follows the investigation through the fictional eyes of a cop and his partner, two ex-prize fighters who get drawn into a seedy underworld as their invesigation and obsession with the case grows. Searching around on urlLink IMDB.com , I noticed that the book is now to be turned into a film by Brian De Palma. That's a good sign. He made Scarface, The Untouchables and Carlito's Way , and despite Snake Eyes and Mission To Mars , I have a lot of confidence he could make a very good film out of the book.
HOWEVER, the two people chosen to play two hard-bitten, committed investigators who's obssession pulls them apart, are: JOHN HARTNETT AND MARK WAHLBERG For fuck's sake. Marky Mark?! Fucking hell, has the charisma vacuum run out of ill-conceived remakes to do? Hartnett? HARTNETT!? The guy who made Pearl Harbour watchers go "Wow, Affleck isn't the one dragging down this scene".
The guy is the worst actor in Hollywood not called Ashton Kutcher and the cinematography will be fucked due to the amount of vaseline needed on the camera to hid his pock-marked skin. This blows. This really blows. Still, this is the world where apparently the desired casting for The Office USA at the moment stands at Brad Pitt for Brent and Matt Damon for Tim. 
