David Fincher, Matt Damon, Torso

[Hang on, let me add a “?” somewhere. We don’t need another incident like when Guy Richie denied the rumor he started about Russell Crowe starring as Dr. Watson.]

The facts are more solid for this story. Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon picks up a piece from the Cleavland Plain Dealer and weaves together several threads that were left hanging as loose ends, now nearly two years after the Torso adaptation was first announced:

“…we learn for the first time, to my knowledge, that Matt Damon will star as Eliot Ness in the film, which centers on Ness’s closing of the Al Capone case in Chicago and moves to Cleveland. There he makes a promise to help clean up the town until the city is scarred by a series of gruesome killings known as the “torso” murders, in which at least 13 people were killed between 1934 and 1938.”

Producer Bill Mechanic tells the Plain Dealer:

“It all comes down to what’s the best place to get our movie shot for the least money,” Mechanic said. “We want to shoot the entire movie, the interior and exterior shots, in Cleveland because that’s where the action takes place and so we wouldn’t have to relocate the crew. But without incentives, it doesn’t look like we can afford it.”

Production on the $100 million film might move to Michigan in search of those incentives. If this is Fincher’s next project, looks like Rendezvous With Rama will be bumped back yet again. And whither Heavy Metal? Have to say, for me the thought of Fincher doing his Chinatown/Black Dahlia trumps both those long-rumored projects.