Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. If you don't know who The West Memphis Three are, I suggest you stop reading this right now and hit the Netflix or Blockbuster or mom n' pop video store... whatever... Seek out Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's PARADISE LOST series documenting these three youths accused of murdering three young boys. PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS was the first documentary I saw that floored me. Absolutely floored me. It showed me how powerful the medium of documentary film work can be.
It's a frustrating case, where evidence against these boys were literally along the lines "He reads Stephen King books and wears black." The whole thing is twisted and one real life horrific figure stands above everybody else by the time you finish Berlinger and Sinofsky's second film... John Mark Byers, step-father to one of the murdered boys. Even if he had nothing to do with the murders of the kids, this man is scarier than any horror icon of the last half century.
Oddly enough, Derrickson's EMILY ROSE was set in the court system as well AND he is also set to direct an adaptation of PARADISE LOST. Weird, huh?
And am I going insane or was there another WEST MEMPHIS THREE movie in the works a couple years ago with people like John Cusack and Ricki Lake involved?
I really want Derrickson and Boardman to kick this one through the uprights. This story could make the next great courtroom drama. The characters are colorful, the situation difficult, the sympathies great... So much potential. I don't want to see a piece of entertainment with a serious "where are they now" scroll at the end. I want a hard hitting drama that sheds light on this case and pisses people off. In short, I want a mainstream movie that'll make the masses feel like I did after watching the documentary.
