Suddenly the story of kidnap victim-turned-terrorist Patty Hearst is popular again. Not only does CNN have a docu-series about her on the way, but last month we learned James Mangold would direct Elle Fanning in an adaptation of American Heiress, Jeffrey Toobin’s book about Hearst. Well, you can scratch that one. So soon after it was announced, 20th Century Fox have decided to cancel Mangold’s film.
The decision follows criticism from Hearst herself, who blasted Toobin and his book that she says “romanticizes my rape and torture and calls my abduction a ‘rollicking adventure’ ”. She has taken CNN to task for their upcoming series, which is also based on Toobin’s book but at this point is still scheduled to debut on February 11th.
As for the movie, it would have been penned by Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander (The People vs. Larry Flynt) and tell the story of Hearst, granddaughter to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and her kidnapping in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She would become famous, or infamous, when it appeared she had joined her captives and was committing crimes alongside them.
Hopefully this gives Mangold the space to complete any of the handful of projects he’s got piling up, such as an adaptation of Don Winslow’s The Force, and a potential Logan spinoff featuring X-23. [THR]
