Killer Films ‘Kill’ for Krokidas’ Beatnik Beginnings

We got a morsel of him in another Killer Films’ project in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (David Cross played a bearded version of the written word maverick), and the upcoming release of Howl will showcase James Franco in the big shoes of the great Allen Ginsberg. Is the beatnik culture making a big screen comeback? Apparently so.

Variety reports that Christine Vachon has nabbed what appears to be not only a biopic but also works as a thriller spec script by John Krokidas and Austin Bunn. Krokidas who is tapped to make his directorial debut with Slo-Mo (a Sandy Stern and Michael Stipe‘s Single Cell Pictures project – the production company that participated on Velvet Goldmine and Being John Malkovich).

Not to be confused with the terrible, same-titled Swedish U.S-set road movie from a couple of years back, Kill Your Darlings will showcase the founding members of Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac (of what would be know as the beatnik culture) in a spec that involves a 1944 murder that brought together the trio. I imagine that since the setting is 44 we won’t be seeing much of the black attire topped with berets but perhaps the early sparks of what might have lead them to speak out against the nonsense known as the 1950s, postwar America. Curiously, apart from Ginsberg’s Howl being made into a feature film, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is currently being developed by Walter Salles for a 2009 release.     

Bunn co-wrote Vachon’s second life-of-a-producer book (A Killer Life) — which is a really good read, even for non-producer folk like myself.

Vachon will produce while D/F Management’s Steven Dontanville will exec produce.