Chris Benoit Film Biopic CROSSFACE Includes Triple H & Eddie Guerrero As Characters

The controversial 'biographical thriller' of former WWE World Champion Chris Benoit that covers the shocking 2007 double murder of his wife and son before he then committed suicide, will feature Kurt Angle, Triple H and the late Eddie Guerrero as characters, according to the film's writer. Former Weinstein Company staffer Sarah Coulter who has now completed the first draft of her script told Worst Previews;

"There are a lot of unknowns about that weekend , which is probably why so many people have tried to fill in the blanks with conspiracy theories," she explained. "Chris Benoit was behind the murders, but we still wanted to touch on several of those theories." "Eddie is obviously very important to the story," she said. "Triple H, Kurt Angle, they're all there, but it's early and things can still change.

Coulter has confirmed several actors are in talks for the lead role and an official casting announcement is due soon before filming begins late 2012. No director has been set yet. A close and long time friend of Benoit, Eddie Guerrero's sudden death in 2005 just 18 months before Benoit's murder incident is of course often seen as a huge catalyst in the wrestler's depression at the time of the murders. The use of Kurt Angle and Triple H is less clear, especially as Angle had left the WWE a year before the incident (though Benoit did have some of his very best matches in the company with him) and Triple H was nothing more than a work colleague but presumably because he worked for the WWE at the time he is included and more recognisable faces that Coulter hasn't directly mentioned. However things can change in scripts all the time and what she has written now may not end up on screen necessarily and there could be some legal issues if wrestlers like HHH and Angle are portrayed in a way they, or the WWE don't enjoy. Crossface is setup at SRG Films who have bought the rights to Matthew Randazzo€™s book €œRing of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry€, one of the countless number of books about the pressures the wrestling superstar faced throughout his career and how it was that a quiet family man, who was 100% dedicated to their safety and his ability to be the absolute best in the squared circle, one weekend murdered his wife and young son before hanging himself. Randazoo€™s book which I haven€™t read (though I have read others) suggests severe depression caused by head trauma and steroid/drug-use that damaged his brain and had turned him psychotic. One of the frequently asked questions about the movie since it was announced recently would be whether it would focus on Benoit's life pre-2007 where he was amongst the sport's most respective wrestlers. Coulter now confirms it is almost exclusively set in 2007;

"Chris had a remarkable career. You take a look at his time in Japan and with Stu Hart, and you realize that you'd need more than one movie to tell the entire Chris Benoit story. Ultimately, it's about the 2007 murders/suicide, so we had to pick and choose the right moments in Chris' career that may have been factors in his downfall."

SRG chief Dale Alexander Carnegie is producing, WME are packaging the project. I believe but I€™m not certain that this might be SRG Films€™ first production.