THE BEAR Creator Christopher Storer to Direct Adaptation THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE
The Bear is one of the best series right now, and that second season completely blew me away. That show is a masterclass in storytelling and character development. I love that show, and it was recently reported that its creator, Christopher Storer, has signed on to direct a feature film for Paramount Pictures.
That film is an adaptation of the 2006 Don Winslow novel The Winter of Frankie Machine. This is an adaptation that Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, and William Friedkin, have all attempted to make in the past. Store will actually use the script written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien for Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.
The story is about Frankie Machiani, “a hitman for a San Diego mob family who’s dragged out of retirement when asked by an LA crime family boss to oversee a meeting between Detroit and LA crime families. He realizes quickly it’s all a set up to kill him. He needs to shake off the rust and dodge those killers until he figures out who is trying to kill him.”
The report says that “Winslow and Salerno received numerous approaches from major filmmakers over the past decade but never found the right fit and shot down all overtures until Storer came along.” They were big fans of that first season of The Bear, and they loved Storer’s passion for the novel, and he was obviously a fan of the original script.
The Scorsese project never panned out because he and De Niro ended up being more interested in adapting the novel I Heard You Paint Houses, and they made The Irishman instead. The novel was initially given to De Niro for research to play Frankie Machine, which probably wasn’t the best idea, since it killed the project and launched another.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Storer ends up doing with the project!
Source: Deadline