Geekery: Wonder Woman Director Takes a Fresh Look at the Black Dahlia Murder
Patty Jenkins and Chris Pine team up for a limited series about the decades old cold case. I Am the Night explores a theory about who the murder may be that hasn’t shown up on screen.
The case of the Black Dahlia is one of the most famous unsolved cases in the states, and the oldest unsolved case in LA County. On January 15, 1947 the gruesomely dismembered body of a young woman was found in a vacant lot near Leimert Park in Los Angeles. She was identified as 22 year old Elizabeth Short. There are a lot of theories as to who killed her and why. Dr. George Hodel is involved in one of them, he was suspected by the police but not much came of it at the time.
The TNT mini series is based on his daughter’s autobiography…
“The story of Fauna Hodel, who was given away by her teenage birth mother to a black restroom attendant in a Nevada casino in 1949. As Fauna begins to investigate the secrets to her past, she follows a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Hollywood gynecologist, Dr. George Hodel, a man involved in the darkest Hollywood debauchery and a suspect in the infamous “Black Dahlia” murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles in 1947.”
This looks like something Mindhunter and true crime fans will want to tune in to watch.
Brian De Palma brought James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia to the screen in 2006 with a script from the novel’s author. I’m assuming the hope would be another critical hit like LA Confidential, but it didn’t turn out that way. It’s a bit of a mess – especially given how interesting the Elizabeth Short’s murder is. Maybe Patty Jenkins and Sheridan can manage to make something of it.
I Am the Night arrives on TNT in January 2019.
