The director of The Shawshank Redemption has renamed his new show Lost Angels.
Videogames may not yet have the same cultural cachet as TV, but at least they bring in plenty of money. Frank Darabont, a famous screenwriter and director of movies such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile learned this the hard way. When he tried to call his new show about mid-century Los Angeles L.A. Noir, Rockstar hit back with a lawsuit threat. Fans of Darabont’s work can expect the new show to debut under the title Lost Angels instead.
Despite their similarities, Darabont’s original L.A. Noir title had nothing to do with Team Bondi’s detective game. Rather, the show is based on John Buntin’s 2009 literary nonfiction title of the same name. Nevertheless, publisher Rockstar was not happy about the nearly identical names. “The videogame company with the videogame called L.A. Noire (with an e!) threatened to sue the shit out of me, TNT, every company that actually ever worked in Hollywood,” Darabont explains. “And they have the billions of dollars to back it up, apparently.” Not wanting a costly legal battle, Darabont backed down and renamed the program.
Naming issues aside, there’s a good chance that people who enjoyed L.A. Noire will enjoy Buntin’s book and Darabont’s new series based on it. The story is different, but the setting is the same, and the themes of rethinking the American Dream and trying to keep one’s morals in an immoral city are both present. Lost Angels has no definitive release date, but filming is already underway. If you want to read the book first, you’ve still got at least a few months.
Source: io9
