Walton Goggins to star in CBS’ L.A. Confidential pilot
CBS has cast Walton Goggins (upcoming Tomb Raider, Justified, The Shield) in the upcoming pilot based on James Ellroy’s 1990 noir novel L.A. Confidential, according to Variety. Goggins will play Detective Jack Vincennes, who is described as follows: “All swagger and flash with a movie star smile, Jack knows how the system works and uses it to his best advantage, including some corrupt shakedowns on the side.” The character was previously played by Kevin Spacey in the previous movie.
The series will reportedly follow three homicide detectives, a female reporter and a Hollywood actress. The detectives are following a serial killer who is operating in Los Angeles in the 1950s.
Anna Fricke has joined the series as executive producer and co-showrunner. L.A. Confidential will be produced by Oscar winner Arnon Milchan, who produced the hit film, with his company New Regency, as well as Jordan Harper (Gotham), Lionsgate Television and CBS Television Studios.
L.A. Confidential was produced as a film in 1997 and stars Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Russel Crowe, Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, and Danny DeVito. It was directed by Curtis Hanson. The film received nine Oscar nominations. Basinger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role, and the film won Best Adapted Screenplay for Hanson and Brian Helgeland.
Ellroy wrote four novels in his “L.A. Quartet,” about Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s, which also included The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere and White Jazz. Here is the official description of the book: “L.A. Confidential is epic “noir”, a crime novel of astonishing detail and scope written by the bestselling author of The Black Dahlia. A horrific mass murder invades the lives of victims and victimizers on both sides of the law. And three lawmen are caught in a deadly spiral, a nightmare that tests loyalty and courage, and offers no mercy, grants no survivors.”
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