Universal Pictures and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment are developing a biopic based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, we’ve learned exclusively from that Oscar-winning screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, is working the script for Imagine.
The pic, Hoover, will cover the career of FBI Director who founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972. He made the FBI what it is today -- an efficient crime-fighting organization -- in part by harassing dissenters and building secret files on politicians. He is most often associated with his role in fighting the gangster wars in the ’30s and, later, the Mafia. Hoover was recently portrayed by Billy Crudup in the movie "Public Enemies," which focused, in part, on Hoover’s efforts to bring down John Dillinger.
Michael Mann’s "Public Enemies" was neither a huge critical or commercial hit. It tapped out at a $97 million, an underwhelming figure considering the star power — Christian Bale and Johnny Depp -- involved.
