Now that the story of the West Memphis 3 has its happier, albeit heavily compromised Hollywood ending, naturally talk has turned to adapting it into a drama, so those who have avoided Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost films because they “hate documentaries” or something can finally see what Eddie Vedder and Johnny Depp have been talking about all these years. Fortunately for director Atom Egoyan, he was way ahead of everyone else, in a manner reminiscent of Kathryn Bigelow's recent Osama Bin Laden premonition: He’s been developing the feature Devil’s Knot since 2006, and—following a rewrite that incorporates the events leading up to their release last Friday—Egoyan is now ready to shoot his West Memphis 3 story as early as next spring. Of course, as of right now the film only has the life rights to some of the case’s tangential figures, such as private investigator Ron Lax, and not the accused themselves, though presumably that will change now that they’re out in the world and able to make those sorts of deals. Ideally, Egoyan’s film will end with Peter Jackson spewing a bitter, sarcastic epilogue from his easy chair, Masterpiece Theatre-style.
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