"He was a very complex person," director Clint Eastwood said about former FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, who will be the focus of Eastwood's next feature, "Hoover". The bio-pic is prepping for a February 2011 start, starring actor Leonardo Di Caprio.
"He was also very clever," said Eastwood about the former G-Man. "Whether rightfully or wrongly, he was very clever about keeping himself in a certain position in life, so it is an interesting study."
Screenplay for "Hoover" is by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black ("Milk").
"'Hoover' is not as linear and traditional as Milk – but it didn’t need to be," said Black.
"'Hoover' is not as linear and traditional as Milk – but it didn’t need to be," said Black.
"People know Hoover – or think they know Hoover – and that’s great as a writer because you’re free as a writer to explore other stuff…"
A life-long bachelor, Hoover was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation, predecessor to the FBI in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972.
A devoted 'freemason' since he was 26, Hoover was instrumental in building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, instituting a number of modern innovations to police technology, including a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.
His critics accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI, using the government agency to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files on political leaders for blackmail and to collect evidence using illegal methods.
With Hoover's backing, the FBI spied on thousands of suspected radicals. According to documents declassified in 2007, he maintained a list of 12,000 Americans suspected of 'disloyalty'.
He also relocated agents who displeased him, including Chicago FBI Bureau Chief Melvin Purvis , the nemesis of John Dillinger, 'Pretty Boy' Floyd and 'Baby Face' Nelson, who was forced out of the organization by Hoover, then blackballed from finding any further work. Purvis eventually underwent electro-shock therapy, became a morphine addict and took his own life.
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