77
(Original Script by J.E.)
According to the Hollywood Reporter, in 2001 Ellroy secured "a deal worth high-six against seven figures" after delivering a pitch of his original, potential script to NBC cop franchise king Dick Wolf, who helms the various Law and Order series, as well as the newly-revised ABC series Dragnet, for whom Ellroy friend and retired LA Sheriff’s Detective Bill Stoner serves as an advisor (Stoner also turned up in a cameo set in a trailer court toward the end of the first season in spring, 2003).
77 was to reportedly focus on "two events from May 1974, the unsolved murder of Los Angeles police officer Mike Edwards and the nationally televised shootout in South Central Los Angeles between the LAPD and the Symbionese Liberation Army, as they exchanged more than 50,000 rounds of gunfire. The story will unfold through the eyes of a pair of police partners, one black and one white." Reportedly, the story was presented as a less than 30-minute pitch that producer Wolf declared "one of the best pitches I've ever heard. He draws verbal pictures of the characters that are truly extraordinary, and obviously he can put them down on the page." (Updated 5/21/03)
