BLACK MASS

• BLACK MASS

Screenwriter Russell Gewirtz (Inside Man, Righteous Kill) has been tapped to pen the true crime drama Black Mass.

Screen Daily reports that Black Mass is budgeted at $35 million. The project based on the book of the same name by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill.

Here is the film's official plot synopsis via Cross Creek's site:

"James 'Whitey' Bulger, an Irish street punk in Boston with a penchant for rape and robbery, spent much of his early life incarcerated, including a stint at Alcatraz in the 1950's where he was the subject of a CIA experiment using LSD for mind-control. When released, Whitey returned to his thug lifestyle and eventually rose to power in organized crime by using his FBI informant status to bring down the Italian mafia in New England. He and his fellow hood Steve Flemmi, fed incriminating information on the Italian mob to FBI agents John J. Connolly Jr. and Dick Morris, allowing them to make highly publicized arrests while Bulger filled the void in the upper echelon of Boston organized crime. Whitey Bulger reigned as crime boss into the 1990's until a corruption investigation disgraced Morris, who admitted to taking bribes from Bulger and, with Connolly's alleged assistance, aided and abetted criminal activities involving narcotics, extortion, and murder. Bulger escaped arrest and has been missing ever since. He remains on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List."

Whitey Bulger has served as the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's mob boss in The Departed and Jason Isaacs' character on the Showtime series Brotherhood