Bana and Howard are the 'Factor X'

Duo tapped for serial killer thriller

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Tuesday, October 24th 2006 at 11:11 AM

Eric Bana and Terrence Howard are attached to star in Factor X, a thriller currently being written by Gregory Allen Howard for New Line Cinema.

The film tells the true tale of how Dennis Lynn Rader, known as the BTK killer, was captured. The serial killer known as the BTK killer, which stands for Bind, Torture, and Kill, murdered people in and around Wichita, Kan., from 1974-91 and was finally caught in 2005, turning out to be a mild-mannered leader at a local church. Get more on this baddie at Wikipedia. Apparently he carried a "hit kit," a briefcase or bowling bag containing the items he would use during murders: guns, tape, rope and handcuffs. He also packed what he called "hit clothes" that he would wear for the crimes and then dispose of.

On top of that he would often calm his victims by pretending to be a rapist who needed to work out some sexual fantasies on them. This caused many of his victims to be more cooperative and even help him, thinking that once the rape was over, he would leave them alone. Instead, he would kill them.

The name BTK, chosen by Rader for himself, also dictated his methods. He bound, tortured, and killed his victims. He would strangle his victims until they lost consciousness, then let them revive, then strangle them again. He would repeat the pattern over and over again, forcing them to experience near-death, becoming sexually aroused at the sight of their struggles. Finally, Rader would strangle them to death and masturbate to ejaculation into an article of their clothing, usually underwear.

Taking all that into consideration The Hollywood Reporter says Factor X takes its name from what the killer described in taunting letters to the police as his motive for murder, telling how a young, black counterterrorism expert from Washington teamed up with a Wichita police detective, who spent his career trying to chase down the killer.

Bana will play the detective and Terrence Howard would be the counterterrorism expert.

Hmm, sounds a little different than what Wiki tells us, but I don't think there is a movie based on real life that ever played out the same.

The pairing of Bana and Howard is what really peaked New Line's interest as they quickly took it off the table after the pitch began making the rounds last week.

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