Another John DeLorean film revving up

LOS ANGELES – Adam Mazer, hot off his Emmy win Sunday for writing the HBO TV movie "You Don't Know Jack," is getting in the fast lane for a movie about flamboyant automobile mogul John DeLorean.

Mazer is in the final stages of writing the DeLorean script for Steve Lee Jones, an executive producer of "You Don't Know Jack," the story of Dr. Jack Kevorkian as played by another newly anointed Emmy winner Al Pacino.

Jones has acquired rights from DeLorean's last wife Sally, his younger brother Charles, his former assistant and the DeLorean estate, and has signed consulting agreements with several former DeLorean lawyers.

"This is an epic tale that has every element of a major studio film," said Jones, who is partnered with producer David Permut ("Youth in Revolt"). "(DeLorean) traveled the world, dated starlets, held 78 patents and of course was involved in huge legal battles. It is a big story."

DeLorean left his executive job at General Motors to launch the DeLorean Motor Co., which manufactured his DMC-12s in Northern Ireland during the early 1980s. With its flashy gull-wing doors, the car was turned into a time machine in "Back to the Future."

An FBI sting operation led to an accusation of drug trafficking against John DeLorean that eventually resulted in an acquittal, but not before his company went bankrupt after turning out just 9,000 cars. DeLorean died of a stroke in 2005, aged 80.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this year that at least four projects were in various stages of development about DeLorean. Two of his children are backing rival projects.

After "DeLorean," Mazer also is attached to write "Rube," a real-life tale about the roots of the porn biz, and "Contingency," about lawyers in the 1970s and '80s who were among the first to advertise. Both projects also are produced by Jones, who said he and Mazer share an interest in projects that tell realistic and socially relevant stories.

"Contingency," still in an early stage, is based on characters Jones knew growing up in Baltimore, where he hopes to shoot the picture. He said it centers on less-than-successful attorneys who became rich and famous after the Supreme Court allowed lawyers to advertise.

"It is the story of what happened to the American legal system," Jones said, "and has an 'Erin Brockovich' element."

"Rube," also at the starting line, will be based on the late Reuben Sturman, who in the 1950s began selling "girlie magazines" in Ohio, imported porn from Europe and brought peep shows to America. Despite legal challenges, he became a billionaire in the 1970s but got into business with the Gotti mob in New York, ended up in jail and died penniless.

Jones acquired life rights from Sturman's son.

"Jack" was Mazer's second produced script after the Universal espionage picture "Breach" (2007), another fact-based story.