"Alpha Dog:" From the Courtroom to the Screen

In researching movies, or just following the goings-on of the film world, there is always a time when you see a movie’s release and say “Hey wasn’t that movie already out or supposed to come out?” Movies usually get their release dates pushed if special effects aren’t finished, as seen with the film “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” or if the movie isn’t good as seen by the supposed rumblings coming from the Karl Urban movie “Pathfinder.” That movie has gone to many bad test screenings causing the film’s release to be pushed till April. Then there is the special movie that has extenuating circumstances, a specific reason why it hasn’t been released, so goes the story of the film “Alpha Dog.”

“Alpha Dog” stars Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake and Ben Foster. The film revolves around local drug dealer Johnny Truelove played by Hirsch. Truelove lives in the suburbs of LA with his motley crew of friends including a friend played by Timberlake. When local client Jake Mazursky (Foster) can’t pay Truelove back, the gang decides to kidnap Jack’s brother Zack. After showing Zack the life of excess that the teens live, it becomes apparent to Truelove and his group that they have a problem. How the kids go about getting rid of Zack becomes the crux of this thriller.

Now a lot of comparisons have been made between this movie and the dark comedy “The Chumscrubber.” How this actually differs is that “Alpha Dog” is a true story, revolving around a true case that shocked California. Due to recent events, the story of “Alpha Dog” will hit the big screen January 12th 2007, a whole three years after it was filmed.

Now the actual story behind “Alpha Dog” revolves around drug dealer Jesse James Hollywood and his kidnapping of Nick Markowitz. Now trying not to go into details is difficult and it will subsequently ruin the movie. Suffice to say that Hollywood was finally arrested for his actions in 2005. Now while events and names have been changed this movie has faced a long uphill battle to make it to the screen.
Originally director Nick Cassavetes, director of “The Notebook,” had to reshoot the ending of the film to reflect Hollywood being arrested. Then Cassavetes was subpoenaed after it was revealed he had access to actual court documents. An injunction, trying to bar the film’s release, was ultimately rejected but the court proceedings kept pushing the film’s release. If one looks at the official Alpha Dog website, you can find in the “Making Of” section no mention whatsoever about the court proceedings or the real story behind the film. This could be because of the ongoing litigation with Hollywood.

Now three years is a long time between filming. Usually fans give up hope of the movie being released or end up not seeing it in theaters. This is not the case with “Alpha Dog,” a large group of fans actively promoted and talked about this film on the IMDB.com message boards. Production people close to the film, even director Cassavetes was on IMDB talking to fan and discussing the progress of the film. A large campaign of fans could be good for the movie, to actively promote. Having the director talk to fans to keep them in the know is also showing how much help this film needs.

In the end, how “Alpha Dog” does in theaters is all based on word of mouth, since the movie was made so long ago. Check out the film January 12th, a movie that has this much controversy around it has to have something special, don’t you think?

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Larry has promoted this film extensivly since it's start