Matt Damon Starring as Eliot Ness for Fincher's 'Torso'?

Production set to hit Cleveland or Michigan?

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Thursday, September 4th 2008 at 1:55 AM

The first time, and to my recollection the last time, there was any mention of David Fincher's adaptation of the graphic novel Torso was when the film was announced back in 2006 and originally expected to be filmed inbetween Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That obviously didn't happen, but a new article at Cleveland.com, the city that would be the setting for the feature based on Brian Michael Bendis's novel reports Paramount wants to shoot the film in Cleveland next year, but a dispute over tax breaks may move the production to Michigan.

On top of that news 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. The apparently serial slayings, which took place while Ness was city safety director, were never solved.

With regard to the Cleveland shoot, producer Bill Mechanic is quoted saying, "It all comes down to what's the best place to get our movie shot for the least money… 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."

The film is said to be budgeted somewhere around $100 million and will serve as Fincher's follow-up to Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which hits theaters on December 19.

The script for Torso was penned by Ehren Kruger (The Ring).