The premise of Linklater’s upcoming Bernie, which the director compares to Fargo, is based around a crazy-sounding true-crime story from East Texas. Texas Monthly explains it:
“This past August, however, Carthage captured the attention of the entire country when the news broke that the town’s richest and snootiest widow, 81-year-old Mrs. Marjorie Nugent, had been found in the bottom of a large freezer in her home. What made the story peculiar was that Mrs. Nugent had been dead for almost nine months before people began searching for her. What made the story truly bizarre was the way many of the townspeople rallied around the 39-year-old man who had admitted to killing her and stealing her money — the soft-spoken, chubby-cheeked Bernie Tiede, the former assistant funeral director at Hawthorn Funeral Home who had gotten close to Mrs. Nugent when he supervised her husband’s funeral.â€
Whoa. Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine have now reportedly been cast for those roles, which they seem appropriate for. Filming will start on location this fall, with Linklater casting Texan locals for other various roles.
Richard Linklater Casting Bernie, Fargo-Like Crime Story [Bleeding Cool via Playlist]