Auto Focus

To answer the question “Is there anything more bizarre than a breezy sitcom set in a Nazi prison camp?” you need only look at the life and death of Bob Crane. When he wasn’t duping Klink and Schultz as Col. Hogan, he indulged in pornography—not just consuming it, but directing and starring in his own stag films. Whispers of his secret obsession began turning into career poison (remember: this was decades before the Vivid Girls and the Internet conspired to make porn safe for Middle America). What happened next is still one of Hollywood’s great unsolved mysteries: Around the time he apparently tried to clean up his act, somebody murdered him in an Arizona hotel room. The pedigree of the behind-the-scenes talent bodes well for the quality of Auto Focus . Producer Scott Alexander has made a niche for himself in off-kilter celeb biopics, scriptwriting The People Vs. Larry Flynt and Ed Wood . And Crane’s sordid story is perfectly suited for director Paul Schrader (the guy who wrote Taxi Driver and Hardcore ), a brand name you can trust for edgy films about fragmented neurotics hurtling toward their own destruction. As for the stars, Greg Kinnear matches Crane’s lightweight public persona, but rumors of his acting chops in darker material remain unconfirmed. On the other hand, Willem Dafoe can probably play Crane’s porn-partner (and likely killer) in his sleep.