Johnny Depp and Black Mass director on why bringing Whitey Bulger to the big screen was a struggle
True-crime drama brings a vanished Boston of the 1970s and '80s to life - despite the reluctance of many local people to talk openly about that time
When director Scott Cooper was first approached about directing - the story of notorious Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger and the FBI agent who abetted his bloody rise to power - he had some serious trepidation.
Not only was the film in a genre that included some of the most acclaimed movies of all time, including and , but it also would require re-creating a world that was all but lost to history: South Boston in the 1970s and '80s.
Once he'd committed to the project - with an ensemble cast led by Johnny Depp as Bulger, Joel Edgerton as corrupt FBI agent John Connolly and Benedict Cumberbatch as Bulger's politically powerful brother, William - Cooper laid out a mandate for his crew.
"I told them, 'Though this takes place in the '70s and '80s, I want us to feel like it's 1975 and we're making a contemporary film'," he recalls. "It's not 2014 and we're making a film about 1975 - we are in 1975.'"
However, that was easier said than done. The realm over which Bulger reigned - the blue-collar, Irish-Catholic neighbourhood known as "Southie" - had become increasingly gentrified over the years, as expensive condominiums and chic, yuppie-friendly restaurants moved in and scrubbed away much of the area's grit.
