Nick Schou on the adaptation of ‘Kill the Messenger’

In 2006, the journalist Nick Schou began writing a book about his former colleague Gary Webb, who had committed suicide several years before, after writing a series of stories that linked the CIA to a cocaine-smuggling operation out of Nicaragua. Schou’s book became Kill the Messenger, which reinvestigated the circumstances of Webb’s original investigation and, several years later, his suicide.

Seven years later, that book has become a movie, same-named and starring Jeremy Renner. This summer, Schou flew to Atlanta to watch the filming of Kill the Messenger. His book will be republished in tandem with the movie’s release.

I spoke with Schou recently about the pre-, post-, and production process; about the years between page and screen; and, of course, about Atlanta.

I know the development process for the movie was kind of winding.
So basically I wrote this book back in 2006 and before it came out, the American Journalism Review did an online piece about this book that was going to reexamine the Gary Webb/”Dark Alliance” controversy. And so pretty quickly after that went online, I actually got a call from Peter Landesman, who wanted to write a movie about Gary Webb, and so even before the book came out in October, 2006, I was kind of involved with trying to make that happen and talking to the Webb family and getting their cooperation and so forth. As often happens in Hollywood, the fate of this project kind of went up and down a lot. So Universal Studios ended up basically not wanting to go forward with the movie after a few other really serious dramas that they had produced didn’t do that well, like State of Play, I think it was, and there are a couple other movie that involve journalists. Basically it sort of stalled and then I found out that Jeremy Renner had read the script and wanted to star in the movie and produce it, so that’s how it ended up getting made.

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And when he jumped on board, that’s when it jump-started everything.
There was a lot of people that had gotten this movie signed on with Universal who stayed involved with it this whole time. Basically seven years, people were trying really hard to get the movie made - it’s just not easy. Laughs To me, it wasn’t almost until I arrived in Atlanta and was on set that it sank in that it was really happening. Because they say until the cameras start rolling, anything can stop the movie from going forward. And it’s true.

How long were you here this summer?
Actually I was really only in Atlanta for three days. It’s pretty funny - I don’t know about other movies, this is the only thing I’ve ever been involved with, but it was pretty secretive as far as where it was going to be filming or where I was going to go. And I didn’t even know until shortly before I arrived the logistics of where I was going to be staying or anything. Laughs That’s probably just standard industry practice or whatever. Literally, I got a ride to the set, which at the time that I was there it was actually at the Georgia State Archives, downtown, so the first sign of it that I saw were these little “KTM” signs. Basically this building had been outfitted to look like both the San Jose Mercury News and The New York Times and Washington Post offices as well as a CIA office.

So why did you come down for the three days?
The thing that was pretty funny was that it was offered to me to just come out. I think it’s something they did as a courtesy, I’m the writer of the book, so when it was communicated to me, I was joking to the producer and said, “Well you know, I actually saw on IMDB that you guys are looking for actual journalists as extras and I just want to remind you, I’m a journalist. I am also available.” And I was kind of half-joking, half-serious. Basically the reception to that statement that I made was just a lot of laughter at the other end of the line, and so I didn’t know until maybe a month or so after that phone call that they actually contemplated that and sure enough the director, Michael Cuesta, was really kind to include me in a few scenes that involved the San Jose Mercury newsroom.

What should your eagle-eyed fans look for to spot you?
They should be looking for someone wearing a brown v-neck sweater, like basic standard mid-’90s journalist garb, and standing behind a glass window looking in at the San Jose Mercury News boardroom. Actually, Oliver Platt, who plays Jerry Ceppos, the executive editor of the newspaper, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were in that scene as well as Renner.

It seems like you had a lot of contact with the movie. Was the adaptation process easier or harder because of that?
This is a little unusual because basically both my book and Gary Webb’s book were optioned. Buy the thing is, is that because I didn’t just write a biography of Webb - I actually as a journalist was covering this beat at the time that this scandal unfolded, and had gotten to know Gary pretty well through that. I had a unique insight into that scandal, which was sort of the centerpiece of my book and the centerpiece of the script. I basically spent a lot of time putting the screenwriter in touch with different people he then interviewed and also just answering a lot of his questions about various characters in the movie and various facts that were happening. But he also did his own investigation, as well, and had his own sources that weighed in on this. The movie was basically an off-shoot of the book that I did, but with some additional legwork, actually, done - which I think is a little bit unusual for a Hollywood script. But this particular screenwriter is a former journalist himself, so that explains that. More recently after Focus Features signed on to produce the film, they had a huge amount of questions. I actually sent out two boxes full of all my old files that they used just for set dressing purposes and so forth.

How did the film seem to you, on set? What are you expecting to see when you go to the premiere?
Some of the scenes they were filming during the two extra days that I was there watching this were really kind of pivotal moments in the movie, and it was really high-energy, just tension, you know what I mean? You really feel like you’re there in the newsroom where these critical decisions are being made. The level of energy and tension was pretty amazing. What was kind of wild about it was hours would go by, they would do the same scenes like over and over and over, because they have two different cameras, but they’d re-position them on every actor in the room and for various technical reasons it was just very laborious. But as the hours wore on, the actors got even more into their roles and into the scenes that they were doing and ad-libbing to a certain extent with sometimes comical but often very powerful, emotional results.

Were you a resource for the actors at all?
No, I mean because quite honestly I wanted to stay out of their way. They were working, as it were, and I was more just trying to observe and be like a fly on the wall. Laughs In some ways, like Jeremy for example, as he was getting more worked up in this particular scene that was like extremely pivotal to the movie, he got more and more energized and was like stalking around the set and walking up and down the halls and startling people and stuff like that. So like at one point, he poked his head into the room where I was and said, “Where is everybody?” in this kind of funny voice. But he was obviously having a great time doing it, and him and Oliver Platt had great chemistry.

Had you been to Atlanta before this?
Not really, no. I guess I’ve driven through a few times, back in my twenties like going home to D.C. from like New Orleans, for example. I was really impressed. It was really an amazing town. I had no idea how big it was. Gosh, the airport was huge. And where we stayed was in the Buckhead part of town? I felt like actually I understood it a little bit because I’d read the Tom Wolfe book - what is it, A Man in Full?

Did you do any exploring in your three days?
The really fun off-set experience that I had was having dinner with Michael Cuesta and Peter Landesman and Naomi Despres, who’s another producer on the movie. We went to Empire State South, I think it’s called. That was pretty wild. Great cuisine.

Whoever picked it has good taste.
Naomi chose that. It was our one opportunity for really, really great Southern food.

Now that the movie has wrapped, it’s like such a weird experience that your piece of investigative journalism went through a seven-year development process and is going to become an adult drama starring Jeremy Renner. Is it still surreal for you?
It’s super exciting. Quite honestly, I went in to writing this book with a real passion for getting this story told and I felt lucky, actually. I was very disturbed, first of all by Gary Webb’s suicide and also to a certain extent the way that his legacy wasn’t really understood, in my mind, and there was an L.A. Times obituary that came out that was, I thought, really disgraceful and unfair in describing him as like “a discredited reporter.” But on the other hand, there are a ton of people out there who are still under the impression that Gary Webb was murdered by the CIA, like years later after his career had already been destroyed. I felt like, somebody needs to set the record straight on this. I tried to get that book published and was rejected. It’s that classic story. I can’t remember how many rejection letters I got, but I got a lot, and finally Nation Books was actually really excited to have the opportunity to publish this. But it was basically just to get the story out, so the fact that somehow all these years later Hollywood has found a way to not just get it made, but get it made right and with the right people and with a huge cast, it’s a huge thrill.

Why film in Atlanta?
It’s going to be interesting to see how Atlanta works as far as doubling for - what? San Jose, Sacramento, south-central L.A., and Central America. So, few places could pull that off and I think Atlanta probably can do it. As far as why it was chosen, I don’t really know that. A lot of movies are being made in Atlanta.

Once this movie comes out, it’ll be the first time a lot of people are exposed to Gary Webb’s story. Are we on the cusp of another wave of interest into his life and work?
I don’t know if I can really answer that question. I’d certainly think that it’ll be interesting to see how the mainstream media handles this movie because they can’t really ignore it and yet they’re sort of implicated in it. But again, I don’t think this is exactly the type of movie that’s going to be pointing the finger so much as trying to tell a really good story and do it as fairly and emotionally as possible. The broader issue is, and I think it actually has something to do with the fact that this movie finally did get made now, the times that we’re living in are such that people will be able to understand a little bit about why this is such an important story that should be told, as far as people’s trust in their government goes and the awareness that people have versus back then, as far as the types of activities that happen. The media is under a withering storm of factors that are making it very difficult to have a functioning press. And there are so many important stories that are out there.