INFAMOUS

Year: 2006
USA: Warner Independent Pictures
UK: Warner Bros Pictures International UK
Cast: Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, Juliet Stevenson, Sigourney Weaver, John Benjamin Hickey, Lee Pace
Director: Douglas McGrath
Country: USA
USA & UK: 118 mins
USA Rated: R for language, violence and some sexuality
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and sex references
USA Release Date: 13 October 2006 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 19 January 2007


Synopsis

New York City, 1959. After a night out on the town, the celebrated author Truman Capote reads a brief article buried in the pages of The New York Times on November 16, 1959 with the headline: "Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain." This turning point in Capote's life would mark the beginning of a fascinating six-year journey culminating in the author's true crime masterpiece, In Cold Blood.

Truman's classic work was to be born of the slaughter of an innocent family and stained by the blood of their killer's executions. Such a labor of love would demand Truman's deep personal involvement with the murderers, an undertaking that unwittingly resurrected demons of his own he could no longer suppress or subdue.

INFAMOUS follows the dangerous quest for artistic greatness chosen by Truman Capote (Toby Jones) as he travels to Kansas to investigate the brutal murder of the Clutter family, accompanied by lifelong friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Nelle Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock).

A darling of New York City's post war cafe society, Truman's effeminate persona, unapologetically flamboyant dress and peculiar, high-pitched voice was the object of shock and ridicule among the residents of the rural farming community where the murders took place. But his charm eventually won over the townsfolk, including Alvin Dewey (Jeff Daniels), the strait-laced detective in charge of the case, with whom Truman formed an unlikely friendship.

But the killers, Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) and Dick Hickock (Lee Pace), were caught, put on trial and sentenced to death. Truman had set out to create "a psychological study of a village and how that place is affected by a vicious crime," but by the time he left, he had developed an intense emotional relationship with Perry that would deepen over the next five years despite court appeals, agonizing execution stays and miles of separation.

INFAMOUS is written and directed by Douglas McGrath (NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, EMMA) from the book Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career, by George Plimpton.