Lohan is rumored to be a member of star-studded cast
OCEAN PARK The criminal case of a Santa Monica landlady accused of killing two homeless men is about to get the star treatment.
The events surrounding 76-year-old Helen Golay, of Santa Monica, and 74-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt, of Hollywood, have apparently intrigued the Hollywood crowd, with plans underway for Ash Baron Cohen to direct a dark comedy based on the sensational murder case.
Tinseltown luminaries such as Lindsay Lohan, Shirley MacLaine, Rosario Dawson and Olympia Dukakis are all expected to headline “Poor Things,” according to the Internet Movie Database.
What roles the actors will take on remains unclear. Golay and Rutterschmidt are currently being held in the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, the subject of recent headlines as the new temporary home of jailed socialite Paris Hilton. The elderly duo is charged with murdering Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid, who were killed in separate yet similar hit-and-run incidents in 1999 and 2005, respectively.
Investigators believe the women befriended Vados and McDavid while they were still homeless, setting them up in apartments and gaining their trust. The two then allegedly convinced Vados and McDavid to sign them onto their life insurance policies before they met their demise.
Lohan’s recent arrest after crashing her car in Hollywood, and subsequent re-entry into rehab, are not expected to affect her involvement in the production, according to a May 28 report in Variety.
A synopsis on imdb.com states that the movie is inspired by true events on “grandma gangs,” whose crimes include drug sales, insurance scams and murder.
Hollywood has a long history of embracing true crime stories for adaptation to the big screen, from “Dog Day Afternoon” to “Fargo” to “Black Dahlia.”
It’s human nature to be fascinated by dramatic events, said Richard Walter, the chair of the graduate S c r e e n w r i t i n g Program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
“In the movies, we want to be as dramatic as we can, to create as much emotion as we can,” Walter said. “Nobody wants to see the village of happy nice people.”
When one of Walter’s students writes a screenplay adapted from real-life events, he advises them to capture the emotion of the true story, not necessarily all of the factual details.
“They shouldn’t be true to the facts, they shouldn’t be true to the data,” Walter said. “What is true in art — dramatic art in particular — is the feeling of the people.”
“Poor Things” is slated for release in 2008, which could coincide with Golay and Rutterschmidt’s murder trial.
The case has been moving at a snail’s pace and has yet to go to trial more than a year after the women were arrested for federal mail fraud. In May, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a motion filed by Golay’s attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, to dismiss on the grounds that his client was denied sufficient rest during the preliminary hearing in March. On June 1, Diamond filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
The case is expected to go to trial in the late summer.
A defense attorney for decades, Diamond said he has worked on several cases that were adapted into movies, but was not aware of the Lohan-MacLaine vehicle coming down the pike. On Wednesday, he didn’t seem surprised by the news, expressing hope that the directors would be in contact to get his view of the case.
“If it actually displays and portrays the facts, then we’ll do OK,” Diamond said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 7, 2007. Read the original PDF.