What would your reaction be if you I told you Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment were moving forward with a “classic buddy movie” about a “rookie gang-banger and a hard-nosed FBI agent who have to overcome a mutual distrust”? You'd probably roll your eyes, right? It's okay. I would too. Now, let me give you three more facts: It'll be directed by the woman behind Boys Don't Cry, Kim Peirce; it was inspired by her love for The Departed and Donnie Brasco; and it's the true life story of a Crip who walked into an FBI office and became an informant because he got sick of all the senseless violence. Has that heightened your interest a little bit?
According to Deadline, longtime Ron Howard wingman Brian Grazer is on to produce and a budget has already been set just south of thirty million. Titled The Knife, the film will follow the aforementioned informant as he struggles both with an FBI that had, at the time, little to no knowledge of the gang underworld, and his fellow gang members as the busts increase and the bosses start murdering anyone that could possibly be a snitch.
Both lauded and despised, the rat is one of the most complicated and timeless characters the movie industry has to play with. Fifty years ago turning informant was almost unheard of, but now, in a world of automatic sentencing and violence against innocent members of society, it's commonplace. Let's hope Kim Peirce is able to properly exploit that moral gray area.
