Civilitas honorary board member and Canadian-Armenian acclaimed film maker Atom Egoyan is at work on a feature film about the West Memphis Three case based on Mara Leveritt's non-fiction book Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. The project had originally been developed at Dimension Films, and when it was put into turnaround, producer Richard Saperstein, former Dimension president, took it over. Scott Derrickson and Paul Boardman, who wrote The Exorcism of Emily Rose, have written a screenplay, which Boardman has been reworking with Egoyan, who boarded the project, about two months ago.

The plan is to begin shooting a $20 million independent production in the spring, with Elizabeth Fowler and Clark Peterson producing along with Saperstein and Boardman. The Canadian-based Egoyan – best known for 1997’s The Sweet Hereafter, for which he earned writing and directing Oscar nominations – is a big admirer of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost documentaries, which exposed how three teens, accused of taking part in Satanic rituals, were unjustly convicted for the murders of three eight-year old boys in West Memphis, Ark. in 1993. But he’s also convinced there’s another story – about the “human drama behind it” – waiting to be told. Speaking by phone from Amsterdam, the director talked about his reaction to the latest developments in the case, the questions still unanswered and how the men’s release this Friday could affect his film.

Read Egoyan’s full interview to the Hollywood Reporter here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/director-atom-egoyan-reveals-details-225645