Inside Joan Didion’s Entry Into Hollywood With Jim Morrison, Al Pacino and More
- by Robert Hofler
IN AN EXCERPT FROM "MONEY, MURDER AND DOMINICK DUNNE," ROBERT HOFLER DETAILS THE LATE WRITER’S STUDIO FILMS WITH HUSBAND JOHN GREGORY DUNNE
Having just produced the film version of Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band, Dominick Dunne looked forward to making a film with his brother, John, and his sister-in-law, Joan Didion. The idea they all liked best was a film version of James Mills’ novel about a couple of young drug addicts on Manhattan’s rough Upper West Side.
Didion summarized their film adaptation of The Panic in Needle Park, calling it "Romeo and Juliet on heroin.” It was the kind of short, snappy synopsis film executives loved and Didion delivered often in the early 1970s. The success in 1969 of such an offbeat hit as Easy Rider opened the door for another low-budget drug-themed movie, and the positive buzz on the Dunne-produced Boys helped, too.
