Details on the Pitch for an L.A. CONFIDENTIAL Sequel and How a Netflix Executive Fell Asleep
L.A. Confidential Oscar-winning writer Brian Helgeland ended up developing a pitch for a sequel to the original film, which was based on author James Ellroy’s novel. He went out and pitched his sequel to several studios including Warner Bros. and Netflix, but no one was interested. In fact, an executive at Netflix fell asleep during the pitch, which isn’t a good sign.
Helgeland recently talked about his experience and shared details with Deadline’s Toronto Studio, saying:
“James Ellroy and I worked out an elaborate pitch for L.A. Confidential 2 that takes place during the Patty Hearst (era), when the Symbionese Liberation Army came down to L.A., and we had Guy Pearce attached and Russell (Crowe) and Chadwick Boseman playing a young cop working for Mayor Bradley.”
That sounds like a great film package and as a fan of the original film, it’s something that I would have been very interested in seeing. But… “We pitched it to everyone. We had to go to Warner Bros first and Warner Bros is like we don’t make movies like this.”
Of course, they don’t! Helgeland went on to talk about the pitch saying: “Ellroy is a performance artist and he would do the pitch; and it was the most amazing pitch.” At the same time, it put an executive at Netflix to sleep. He shares: “Our executive at Netflix fell asleep during the pitch. They fell asleep and nodded off during the pitch. I got home, and said ‘we can’t do that anymore’.”
Then, I guess that they gave up on their attempts to get L.A. Confidential 2 off the ground. It’s a shame because I think a lot of people would’ve been interested in seeing another story with these characters.