"ROAD TO PERDITION" AUTHOR'S "ELIOT NESS" FILM WRAPS

Production has wrapped in Des Moines on Muscatine writer/director Max Allan Collins's new film, "Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life."

Produced as a play, "Eliot Ness" played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from August 18 to 28 at The Des Moines Playhouse to enthusiastic audience response and overwhelmingly favorable reviews.

Between the weekend performances, Collins and his frequent collaborator, Rock Island filmmaker Phil Dingeldein of dphilms, led a crew of Quad Cities and Des Moines filmmakers on a demanding five-day shoot. The shoot -- only the second Iowa feature to be shot on Hi-Definition Video -- represents the first feature film collboration between Eastern and Central Iowa filmmakers.

Developed in part with a grant from Humanities Iowa, the play marks the first theatrical work from acclaimed Iowa author Collins. The resulting film will represent the culmination of decades of research by the prolific Muscatine writer, whose bestselling graphic novel Road to Perdition was adapted into the Academy Award-winning Tom Hanks/Paul Newman film.

The one-man show stars Des Moines actor Michael Cornelsion.

"This format is perfect for telling the true story of this fascinating American's life," said actor Cornelison.

"Eliot Ness is the most famous real-life detective in American history," Collins said, "but probably no figure in our history has been more misunderstood or misrepresented."

Ness, the son of a Chicago baker, was at 26 selected to head up the Capone Squad, directed by President Herbert Hoover to bring down the Windy City's crime czar, Al Capone. His harrowing exploits have been Hollywood fodder for decades, including the classic Robert Stack television series and the Academy Award-winning Kevin Costner film.

"Surprisingly," Collins said, "the real story is more exciting and colorful than the Hollywood version -- after Capone's imprisonment, Ness went on to fight other gangsters, corrupt cops and even America's first serial killer." The writer first explored Ness in his 1983 novel, True Detective, which won the "Shamus" award from the Private Eye Writers of America. Later he penned four novels about Ness's lesser-known but equally exciting exploits as the "top cop" of Cleveland, Ohio; Ness also figured prominently in the original graphic novel of Road to Perdition. Research uncovered by Collins at the Case Western Reserve library, including the Untouchable's personal scrapbooks, has changed the way history views Eliot Ness.

The Playhouse production represented the play's first full production, although a Playhouse-sponsored reading last year led to a Best Mystery Play of 2004 nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

A short 2002 film written and directed by Collins and starring Cornelison -- also entitled "Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life" -- was filmed in collaboration with Dingeldein. The short won an Best Actor award for Cornelsion from the Iowa Motion Picture Association.

Cornelison's previous collaboration with Collins includes three feature films (including the Lifetime Movie of the Week, "Mommy") and two documentaries (including the recent "Caveman: V.T. Hamlin & Alley Oop"). Dingeldein collaborated with them on all but the latter.

The film version is already in post-production, and premieres are anticipated for both the Quad Cities and Des Moines.