Chinatown Screenwriter Robert Towne

Said To Be Working On Netflix Prequel

There are the movie classics—and then there’s Chinatown. First released in 1974, this film is on my short list of “perfect movies,” in part because of how Robert Towne’s equally perfect script paints a grim portrait of the uninhibited greed that shaped Los Angeles in the 1930s. Widely celebrated as one of the best screenplays in cinematic history, it follows Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of J.J. Gittes, a private detective who's duped into working a case that's way more twisted and corrupt than initially thought, and which brings him full circle at the end [no spoiler] to the injustices of the city's Chinatown district.

     As J. Kim Murphy recently wrote in Variety, Towne initially objected to director Roman Polanski’s concept for such a bleak finale. Not only did he initially envision a more triumphant conclusion for Gittes, but he was against the story ending in Chinatown at all. In the years since, Towne has consistently affirmed that he now believes Polanski’s reimagined ending is the appropriate one, and now is rumored to be working with director David Fincher to script a prequel series for Netflix that explores Gittes’ days as a newly minted detective patrolling the neighborhood that would come to haunt him.

     Netflix did not comment on the project either to Murphy or Variety, nor did it respond when the series was first reported to be in development in 2019. Nonetheless, Towne’s vision for the prequel seems cohesive, shining light on the tragic events that shaped Gittes into the instinctively cynical private eye that he is in Polanski’s original film. “When David and I first started talking we agreed we wouldn’t try to replicate Noah Cross,” Towne says about the villain of the original film. “But we did want to keep in mind that the crimes that history considers monstrous are those that will not remain in the past but insist on visiting the future, and I think we managed that.”

Can You Identify These Crime

Movies From Their Taglines?

There’s nothing more satisfying than when a motion picture has a perfect tagline. Take A Nightmare on Elm Street’s “If Nancy doesn’t wake up screaming, she won’t wake up at all.” “Or Casablanca’s “Here’s lookin’ at you kid.” After all, a good tagline ought to be more than either wordplay or a plot synopsis delivery system—and the best ones do both at the same time.

     With that in mind, Crime Reads’ Olivia Rutigliano recently compiled this list of well-known lines from equally well-known crime movies. How many of these do you know? [Click this link to find the answers.]

• “Life is in their hands. Death is on their minds.”

• “Even a hitman deserves a second shot”

• “A comedy of trial and error.”

• “From the moment they met, it was murder.”

• “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”

• “They’re young, they’re in love, and they kill people.”

• “There is more than one way to lose your life to a serial killer.”

• “You don’t assign him to murder cases. You just turn him loose.”

• “Here comes the bride.”

• “This is the weekend they didn’t play golf.”

• “Her life was in their hands. Now her toe is in the mail.”

• “On every street in every city in this country, there is a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.”

• “When he said I do, he never said what he did.”

Nine Movies Like Knives Out To Watch

While You Wait For The Next Sequel

     Five years ago Knives Out shook up the murder mystery genre with quirky characters and a good dose of humor rather than relying on dark atmosphere and equally dark, complicated characters. The Rian Johnson film, which starred Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, and Ana de Armas, also switched up the formula by revealing who the killer is almost immediately…or at least that’s what the audience was supposed to think.

     As Keith Langston recently wrote in People magazine, Knives Out became a smash hit, grossing more than $310 million at the box office and even earning an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. In 2022, the film received a sequel, Glass Onion, and "Knives Out 3" is currently in development, with Craig again set to reprise his role as Detective Benoit Blanc. According to Deadline, the movie will begin filming later this year.

     If you’re like many mystery fans who became enchanted with Knives Out’s whodunnit style, ensemble cast, and eccentric vibe, there’s no shortage of great crime movies to watch while you wait for the third installment. From the black comedy Fargo to the psychological horror of Identity to the Agatha Christie-inspired See How They Run, you’re sure to find more than a few flicks on this list that depart from the usual mystery movie tropes.

15 Gangster Movies That Are

This Close To Being Perfect

     There have been countless fantastic gangster movies over the years, but very few can claim the title of pure perfection. In fact, many excellent films in this genre often have been held back by one critical flaw. It may be a casting decision, an unnecessary subplot, or a bloated runtime, but there have been so many examples of movies that had perfection within their reach, only for it to be snatched away by one key issue. This does not mean these movies were not great; it’s just that certain issues could be improved upon for them to earn the title of genuinely perfect.

     As Screen Rant’s Stephen Holland recently wrote, “Some of the best gangster movies ever made feel entirely untouchable, as films like the first two Godfather films consistently have been part of the conversation around the best movie ever, regardless of genre. Other releases had everything going for them, but it must be admitted that one aspect held them back from being the perfect version of their story. While some viewers believe it’s blasphemy to criticize some of these classic films, these beloved gangster movies were so close to being perfect, if not for one key flaw that held them back.

     With this in mind, Holland offers up his list of gangster films that aimed for perfection, but missed it by that much.

The 10 Best Crime Movies

Of The 2010s, Ranked

     The 2010s represented a marked change in crime cinema. As Collider’s Ellen Apswoude recently noted, crime films of the 1990s and 2000s explored simple themes of good versus evil and examined the procedural aspects of crime and investigation. While those elements still dominate crime films, the rise of streaming and the increased visibility of low budget and international films means that audiences have a much wider selection at their fingertips.

     "This newfound openness to different stories has allowed for a diverse array of films to exist and succeed all at once,” she says. “Success stories from the decade include grungy comic book adaptations like Dredd, foreign language martial-arts extravaganzas like The Raid, and utterly ruthless exercises in hyper-violence like Brawl in Cell Block 99." Diversity in storytelling has also influenced more mainstream and critically acclaimed films from recent years, including the following, which represent some of the best crime films of their decade.

     From 2013’s Prisoners to 2019’s Uncut Gems to 2015’s Sicario, here are ten of the best crime films to define the decade.

Coming Tuesday, September 10

The Fall Of Vivaldi

On a rainy night across Europe, several seemingly unrelated

incidents unfold in quick order:

• In the City of Light, a beautiful young Parisian newscaster

named Gabrielle Lamoines is brutally murdered in her bed,

just as…

• A disgraced British billionaire takes a dive from the top floor

terrace of a luxury resort on the island of Cyprus, at the same time that…

• Reporter Carter Logan causes the death of a former lieutenant

of the Italian mafia in a narrow street in Rome, not far from…

• The Tuscan farmhouse where Alessandro Bortolotti, the head

of a hard-right neofascist movement, is plotting a deadly

attack on the G20 global summit, while…

• A notorious Russian oligarch named Georgy Sokolov plans to

auction off a kidnapped American teen named Abby Evans in

an online event streamed from his villa on the island of Ibiza.

Each of these random events has one thing in common: Retired assassin Ronin Phythian, once known as “the most dangerous man alive”...

Beyond All Doubt

[Reed Bunzel writing as Hilton Reed]

“Beyond All Doubt is an edge-of-your-seat fast-moving thrill-ride, kicked off by the reappearance of a dead man and propelling the reader along to the final bullet—and beyond.”— S.J. Rozan, best-selling author of The Mayors of New York

​

“Beyond All Doubt is a taut, smart, and emotionally rich thriller. Reed has a sharp eye for character and a screenwriter's feel for action. This tale is sleek as a mink and fast as a bullet.”— T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Rescue and Desperation Reef

“Beyond All Doubt is not a 'who done it,' but a twisty, compelling 'who did what.' Cameron Kane is a sympathetic, yet unrelenting bulldog in his pursuit of the truth about his wife's death. Intriguing and intense, Beyond All Doubt is a winner!”—Matt Coyle, bestselling author of the Rick Cahill crime novels