According to a report from Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Chris Benoit’s upcoming “Crossface” biopic will be based off the Irv Muchnick’s book about the murders, however, negotiations for this fell through and the murders will now be based on executive producer Matthew Randazzo’s book.
One industry who is involved with the film, William Morris Endeavor (WME), has suggested that the film speculate that WCW booker Kevin Sullivan had something to do with the murders, which has been a conspiracy theory for years. WME also has suggested that they use late wrestler Johnny Grunge scripted as Benoit’s best friend, find Eddie Guerrero’s body in his hotel room after a Wrestlemania event in Madison Square Garden as opposed to the real story that his nephew Chavo Guerrero Jr. found Eddie’s body after a WWE Live event in Minnesota. Another idea floating around is to have Sullivan break into Benoit’s house to further feed the speculation that he was involved in the murders. Due to all of these fictional and/or controversial theories being called for in the film, original writer Richard O’Sullivan left the film because he refused to write the Sulivan speculation.
Now it is being reported that the film will stick to the original real story.
As for the cast it was reported that Michael Hall was suggested to play Benoit, however, his representatives said he didn’t want to play a killer and be typecast. Other names that have been sugested to play Benoit are Kellen Lutz, Liam McIntyre, and Liev Schreiber but those have been nixed.
WWE is understandably not happy with the films creation, as they feel it will point the finger at drugs, steroids, or others such as CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) as a possible explanation to why Benoit murdered his family and himself.
We’ll keep you updated as we learn more…….
