Peter Facinelli Producing Pic About Whitey Bulger's Boston Gang

EXCLUSIVE: Twilight Saga star Peter Facinelli is producing an adaptation of Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer For Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob, an adaptation of the Edward MacKenzie and Phyllis Karas book. Facinelli Films is teamed with Brookstreet Pictures on an indie film that will tell the story of Bulger's rise and disappearance from the Boston mob scene. While Bulger was said to have informed the character that Jack Nicholson played in The Departed, his tale has drawn film interest after he was apprehended in Santa Monica after vanishing in 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with 21 killings, racketeering and other crimes perpetrated in the 70s and 80s involving his Winter Hill gang. Fortunately for Facinelli, he got involved nine months ago and has a Nick Gordon script and funding commitment from Brookstreet Pictures. He wants to tell the story from the vantage point of MacKenzie, a boxer, drug dealer and feared enforcer. They will go out to filmmakers and a cast. "With the extraordinary capture of Whitey Bulger, there is no better time to tell this amazing story of the Boston Irish Mob from the gripping perspective of Eddie Mac," said Brookstreet president/CEO Trevor Matthews, who'll produce with Facinelli, Rob DeFranco and Alison Haskovec. Brookstreet previously produced Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer and The Shrine. Gersh's Jay Cohen and the Paradigm Motion Picture Finance Group put the pieces together.

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