Cops and mobsters drama based true-crime tome

By DAVE MCNARY, RACHEL ABRAMS
May. 7, 2012,

Warner Bros. has acquired feature rights to “The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia” and set it up with Warner-based producer Dan Lin.Studio has tapped Bill Dubuque to adapt the book based on the investigation of former New York City cops. After a turncoat underworld boss fingered officers Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito as mob employees, William Oldham (a cop who worked alongside Caracappa and wrote the book with Guy Lawson) became a special investigator for the U.S. Attorney’s Brooklyn office after the NYPD decided not to investigate.

The office eventually found enough evidence to arrest the pair. In 2006, they were convicted of labor racketeering, extortion, narcotics, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, eight counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in federal prison.

Mark Bauch at Lin Pictures brought in the book and is co-producer.

Studio is developing the project as a cop action thriller in the vein of “The Departed,” which Lin oversaw as a studio exec. He is in post-production for Warners on “Gangster Squad,” directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn.

Dubuque is currently writing “The Judge” at Warner Bros. with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star. He previously wrote “The Accountant,” which landed on the 2011 Black List.

Courtenay Valenti and Chris Gary are overseeing “The Brotherhoods” for Warner Bros.

Dick Wolf and NBCUniversal originally optioned “Brotherhoods” in 2007. At that point, three other projects based on Caracappa and Eppolito were in the works for Spring Creek, Mandalay and Columbia.

Hotchkiss and Associates negotiated the deal along with Salisbury Literary Agency on behalf of Lawson and Oldham. Paradigm and Zero Gravity rep Dubuque.

Contact Dave McNary at [email protected]

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