The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia is a 2006 neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Brian De Palma and written by Josh Friedman, based on the 1987 novel of the same name by James Ellroy, in turn inspired by the widely sensationalized murder of Elizabeth Short. Starring Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, and Hilary Swank, the film follows two Los Angeles Police Department detectives investigating Short's murder, leading them through a series of shocking revelations. Mia Kirshner, Mike Starr, Fiona Shaw, John Kavanagh, Rachel Miner, and Rose McGowan appear in supporting roles. The rights to the novel were optioned by De Palma a decade prior, with David Fincher originally attached to direct. De Palma was ultimately hired after Fincher dropped out to direct Zodiac instead. Principal photography began in the Bulgarian cities of Pernik and Sofia in April 2005, with additional photography in Los Angeles. The Black Dahlia premiered at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival on August 30, 2006, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion. The film was theatrically released in the United States on September 15, 2006, to largely negative reviews from critics and was a box office failure, effectively ousting De Palma from the Hollywood studio system, with his subsequent productions being filmed and financed overseas. Despite its critical and financial failure, Kirshner's performance was widely praised and Vilmos Zsigmond was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 79th Academy Awards. Plot LAPD detectives Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert and Lee Blanchard are paired as partners after engaging in a boxing match to raise public support for the department. Lee introduces Bucky to his girlfriend Kay Lake, and the trio becomes inseparable. Bucky is shocked when Kay tells him she isn't sleeping with Lee, and later tries to seduce him, but he refuses. He also discovers that Kay has been branded with the initials "BD", for Bobby DeWitt, the gangster whose arrest and conviction for a big bank robbery made Lee's career.