Peter Jackson collaboration with ‘West Memphis Three‘ Damien Echols unveiled their powerful poster and trailer for ‘West Of Memphis‘ right on the heels of HBO’s premiere of Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky’s ‘Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory‘.
For anyone not familiar with the ‘West Memphis Three‘ true story can get their film either on HBO or at the Sundance Film Festival where Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh’s documentary ‘West Of Memphis‘ will premiere and surely win some type of awards. Just as Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky were doing plenty of press with Jason Baldwin for the HBO premiere of their ‘Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory‘ documentary which is on the short list for an Academy Award nomination, Jackson’s ‘West Of Memphis‘ marketing hit hard with a very powerful poster (above and below) and trailer.
As you’ll see in the trailer below, Jackson’s has a much slicker look than ‘Paradise Lost 3′ along with having some interviews with people that didn’t appear in the HBO one. Last month it came out there there was a bit of squabbling over interview subjects between the camps, but at least the real West Memphis Three get to benefit from so much saturation on their case. Jackson and producing partner Fran Walsh became aware of the controversial case back in 2004 when we were developing ours called ‘West Memphis Three‘ and ‘Devil’s Knot’ was then over at USA Networks and another company was trying to development one. Thankfully ours got a massive amount of press attention which caught the acclaimed filmmakers eye, and from then he quietly funded a deeper investigation into the case. That was all we were wanting to do with fellow movie godfather Don Murphy was get enough attention for this case for someone…anyone to step in and get these boys another trial in front of a jury because we were so sure after spending months and years researching this they were innocent. I felt that only by having another trial would they be able to walk out with some justification.
Last August, they were released, but there was still a could hanging over their head. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelly Jr all had to plead guilty in order to walk free. Jason Baldwin was very against this as he wanted to make sure that their names were cleared when they got out, but with a death penalty sentence hanging over Damien Echols, he made this sacrifice. Now Damien Echols is producing along with Jackson and Walsh this documentary to help clear his name which would also clear Baldwin and Misskelley. The most frustrating part for them and all of us who have jumped in to make their story public is that the real victims in this case, the three brutally murdered eight year olds boys and their families, have been royally screwed by the State of Arkansas who wanted to avoid being sued for wrongful imprisonment. Anyone who has spend even a few hours looking into this case will scratch their head wondering how so much botched police work could railroad three kids into prison.
The ‘Paradise Lost Trilogy’ covers this case wonderfully, but there was only so much they could put into their films. As you can read in the ‘West Memphis Three’ script there were some other angles, and that’s what the Peter Jackson/Damien Echols collaboration is including. Many people may not know what one woman was working hard to clear her record of bad checks along with getting some reward money and falsely testified along with getting her son to do the same along with a mysterious figure knows as the ‘Bojangles man’ who disappeared into the night. The physical evidence left behind by this man was lost by the West Memphis Three police department. That’s where ‘West Of Memphis’ is looking to show how badly botched this case was and the need to get an answer for a town shaken by one of the most brutal murders in Arkansas history. They didn’t think anyone would care about three white trash kids, but when Judge Burnett allowed the HBO cameras of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky to film this case, he changed the town forever. So, it’s obvious that you’ll be getting more information from ‘West Of Memphis’ and the two together can really fill in some gaps for those not familiar with this story.
I am wondering where that puts ‘Devil’s Knot’ since it’s been already slowed down twice, once from USA Networks and then with Dimension Films. With so much saturation of this subject hitting this year and a probably Academy Award win for ‘Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory’, will there still be enough attention for Atom Egoyan’s take on this case? With the Peter Jackson name on ‘West Of Memphis’, it will surely be getting a small theatrical run and possible push for next year’s Academy Awards. Will ‘Devil’s Knot’ face a third time push out? We’ll see. So far, it’s only Reese Witherspoon onboard and with all this news coverage, now would be the time for them to do some updating.
Check out the trailer, and if you’re hitting Sundance this month, here’s the playdates. This one will easily be worth the watch even if you already saw ‘Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory’ on HBO.
West Of Memphis Movie Trailer – Best Movies Ever
West Memphis Three Set Free News – Best Movies Ever
The 'West Memphis Three' are Free by Pleading… by NewsyVideos
at 9:58 pm
I met Amy Berg while she was working on this. She rented gear from my company and one of my friends and never paid. You’d figure that with producers like Peter Jackson, they’d be able to pay to rent gear.
at 8:44 pm
Careers at stake and agendas. This is what’s wrong with our legal system. That shit, shouldn’t matter in the trial of a person’s guilt or innocent.
at 7:56 pm
Produced by Echols. Biased much.
at 7:54 pm
Looks pretty interesting, actually.
at 7:51 pm
@movieclipsTRAILERS Awesome, thanks! Good use of the song for this trailer.
at 7:50 pm
@WesternWilder Guilty by Son of Dave . Cool song!
at 6:19 pm
what is the song at 0:55?
at 6:15 pm
I didn’t think they could add anything more to the story that the Paradise Lost movies haven’t covered, but this looks really well made.