Roger Ebert is one of the most prolific film critics who, along with the late Gene Siskel, boiled the approval or disapproval of a film release with a simple thumb. A thumbs up meant it was recommended viewing. A thumbs down meant avoidance.
Besides film criticism, Ebert is an accomplished writer having written both a screenplay (“Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”) and memoir (“Life Itself”). With the memoir being released as a trade paperback this week, Ebert took to Twitter to make a big announcement about the memoir being developed into a documentary.
“Whoa! My memoir has been optioned for a doc by Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) and Steven Zaillian, with Martin Scorsese as exec producer.”
The Pulse: So we have the collaborative efforts of James, Zaillian and Scorsese behind a documentary about one of best writers of film criticism around. The venerable dream team of talent behind the camera will take the utmost care in translating Ebert’s memoir into a fascinating documentary, I have no doubt. The fact that the film is being shepherded by a filmmaker who’s opus of a documentary, Hoop Dreams, rewrote the rules of the documentary category at The Oscars is the icing on the cake.