Director Matthew Mishory and producer-financier Bradford L. Schlei have acquired rights to the L.A.-set punk novel “What We Do Is Secret” by Thorn Kief Hillsberry.
Mishory, director of “Mosolov’s Suitcase” and “Fioretta,” will direct the film adaptation, which will enter development immediately, and produce with Schlei through their Rubber Ring Films. Schlei’s credits include “Swingers,” “Spun” and “Some Folks Call It a Slingblade.” Author and screenwriter Tony O’Neill will adapt the book.
The film adaptation will have a different title than the book, since there was already a 2007 film named “What We Do Is Secret,” which starred Shane West as Darby Crash of the Germs.
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The tragic story of acclaimed punk band the Germs, whose lead singer Crash overdosed and died in 1980, also provides inspiration for this new project, which has the working title “Under the Big Black Sun” (not to be confused with the X album of that name).
Set in 1981 Los Angeles — months after Crash’s death — the story revolves around a fictional character named Rockets Redglare (no connection to the late actor of that name). “A discarded kid, Rockets found a home among the misfits drawn to the Masque, basement club epicenter of the nascent L.A. punk scene. Over the course of the book’s 24 hours, Rockets and his crew of Hollywood runaways turn tricks, score drugs and concoct a desperate, doomed scheme to defraud a pair of tourists — all set to the driving beat of L.A.’s first-wave punk explosion,” reads the synopsis.
Mishory says, “When I discovered Kief’s edgy, exhilarating, gorgeous novel, I knew I had to make it into a film. It’s the perfect evocation of an era and a punk scene I was just one generation too late to have experienced first-hand, but like so many of my friends, I desperately wished I had been there — and had the LPs to prove it. It’s an honor to be bringing Kief’s wild and empathetic vision to the screen.”
Schlei, who also heads Stone Canyon Entertainment, adds: “I’m excited to return to my filmmaking roots with a project based on an enduring novel and exploring the underbelly of my long love affair with the Los Angeles of the 1980s.”
“What We Do Is Secret” was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in fiction.
Hillsbery is the author of “War Boy” and “Empire Made” and writes for magazines about youth culture, skateboarding, surfing and rock climbing. He was active in L.A.’s original punk rock scene.
Rubber Ring principals are Mishory, Schlei and Rob Levine. Rubber Ring Films was repped by Patrick Alach of Longo & Alach LLP. Hillsbery was represented by Matthew Snyder of CAA and Janet Oshiro of The Robbins Office.
