Reading the Screen: The Ice Man
Posted by: David Pitt
According to this story at comingsoon.net, Mickey Rourke has been cast to play Richard Kuklinski, a brutal killer-for-hire who, in the seventies and eighties, was the main go-to guy for organized-crime types who needed someone rubbed out. Rourke is, I think, perfect for the part.
If you’re not familar with the Kuklinski story, you should check out Philip Carlo’s excellent 1996 book, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer. It’s based on more than 200 hours of interviews with Kuklinski (who earned the nickname “Ice Man” after he froze a victim’s body to conceal the time of death), and it’s a gripping portrait of a man who was both a vicious killer and a devoted — if sometimes cruel — family man.
True crime, as a literary genre, doesn’t have a great reputation. That’s most because so much of it is pretty awful: quickie paperbacks cranked out by hacks. But the genre also has some fine writers: Ann Rule, Carlton Smith, Robert Graysmith, Harold Schechter, Jack Olsen.
And Philip Carlo, whose The Ice Man is compelling and haunting. Do yourself a favor: don’t wait for the movie.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:43 am
[...] while back (right here, as a matter of fact), I talked about the forthcoming movie based on Philip Carlo’s excellent [...]