A 'horror story' transforms her career
By Maria Kantzavelos
Law Bulletin staff writer
The Oak Brook-based trial lawyer played a real-life, leading role in the story back in the early 1990s, when, during the course of handling Eyler's death penalty appeal in a murder conviction, her client eventually confessed to her that he was involved in the slayings of 21 young men and boys during the early 1980s.
Bound by attorney-client privilege, Zellner held onto that secret until Eyler died of AIDS complications in 1994.
In their desire to bring their twists on the sensational case to the silver screen, producers a few times since then have approached Zellner, she said, seeking to purchase filmer's rights to the Eyler story. But she has consistently rejected them.
"I thought they just wanted to exploit the violence and gruesomeness of the story," she said.
But a more recent idea, this time coming from Chicago producer Jim Lichtenstein, has captivated the high-profile attorney's attention.
Zellner is on board with plans for actress Jessica Biel to portray her in "Privileged Information," the title for a film Biel is making with Lichtenstein and other co-producers.
The lawyer said she has signed a contract with the producers, selling her movie rights to the story of a case that she has long identified as the one that transformed her career.
The concept for a feature-length film that would focus more on the psychological dynamic between client and lawyer — and the issue of the privileged information she was holding on to — rather than on gory details of horrific murders is what sold Zellner.
"It seemed like something good could come out of the movie," she said. "One is to shed some light on the pressure and dilemma for an attorney of having privileged information, and also to shed light on, really, the psychological profile of a serial killer."
Zellner should know about such matters.
In 1991, when she had just started her own law firm focusing on medical malpractice cases and criminal appeals, and serving as corporate counsel for a large HMO, she was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court through the Illinois Capital Resource Center to represent Eyler at the post-conviction stage.
Over the next several years, she recalled, Eyler — one by one, and in graphic detail — confessed to her the 21 other murders. The lawyer said she attempted to use that information to negotiate life sentences for Eyler in nine different jurisdictions. Eight of those jurisdictions agreed, she recalled, but Cook County did not, causing the deal to fail.
Zellner was left with information about those unsolved homicide cases, information about an accomplice — the name of whom she had disclosed in open court — and about the fact that her client was dying of AIDS.
"It was a difficult situation to be in — not one that I planned on being in," Zellner said, referring to the privileged information she was obligated to keep secret. "It was very difficult to have all of the information, and have the victims' families calling me, and then also to know he was dying, and no one else knew that."
Zellner said she convinced Eyler to allow her to disclose the information upon his death. She did, and the confessions, she recounted, ultimately helped to close 21 murder cases in three states.
"I feel like I actually took something very horrible and brought something good out of it," Zellner said. "I felt good about the families. They were very grateful to have the information."
But there was some soul-searching in the mix for Zellner before she jumped on board with the latest movie project.
"I had so many unpleasant memories of the case, particularly obtaining the confessions. They were very graphic, very gruesome," Zellner said. "It's a part of my career that I really had tried to put in the rearview mirror. I had to think about whether I really wanted to delve back into that."
The producers' focus, however, helped her make up her mind to forge ahead.
"The focus of the story is, I think, something very interesting about revealing the situations that attorneys are put in, and their ethical obligations," Zellner said. "The producers decided to take that angle on it – not to make a slasher movie. I think that's a good thing."
Lichtenstein, who had worked for many years at WLS-Channel 7 as an assignment manager, remembers covering the Eyler case. When he came to learn about another twist to the story, that it was rumored that the Eyler accomplice had sent an escaped inmate to kill Zellner, the producer said he knew he had the makings for a movie — with little need to "pump up" the facts for the big screen.
"There are so many great details just with this one story," Lichtenstein said. "The story is so strong on its own that it'll carry most of the day."
The movie project is in the development stage. Lichtenstein said his team of producers is searching for the right writer to pen a script they could take to the studios.
"In a perfect world, if things move along swiftly, it's possible we could be shooting a year from now," he said.
Lichtenstein, who said he hopes the filming of the movie would take place in Chicago, said production could take about 18 months. The movie, he said, could reach cinemas by 2011.
Zellner said she met with Biel in Hollywood earlier this year, and the two hit it off. The actress plans to spend a lot of time with Zellner in preparation for the role, she said, shadowing the lawyer at her law office and in court.
"I liked her candor. That was one of the reasons we hit it off," Zellner said. "She's extremely interested in making everything accurate. She knows this is a true story; she doesn't want to distort it."
The depiction may include a pool scene, an idea Zellner pitched to the actress after learning about her five-hour-a day exercise regime (Zellner was a competitive swimmer for many years).
And there could also be a scene at a shooting range, a setting where the real-life Zellner likes to unwind with some pistol shooting.
Zellner said the 27-year-old Biel, known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series "7th Heaven" — but whose more recent work includes such Hollywood movies as "The Illusionist" and "Easy Virtue" — is the right person to play her.
"She's smart, she's incredibly disciplined, she's very ambitious," Zellner said. "I think she understands the complexity of the role that she would be playing.
"Would I want someone like Glenn Close?" Zellner said. "Absolutely not."
For one, she said, the idea was for her character to be someone who was just starting out. Biel, Zellner added, "would probably be easier to work with, too."
The lawyer and actress, who have been corresponding through e-mail, are on the same page, Zellner said.
"She doesn't want a movie that bombs, and I don't want a movie that distorts what happened," said Zellner, who is expected to be on hand as an on-set consultant.
After the ordeal of the Eyler case, Zellner said, she vowed to take on clients facing criminal charges only when she truly believed them to be innocent.
Her experience with the case also was transforming in the sense that it led her to build a civil rights practice, which so far has resulted in her winning the freedom of 10 men wrongfully convicted of violent crimes, she said.
She also began on the civil side to represent the victims of crimes, such as rape, and the families of murder victims.
"It was transforming," she said. "And I think the movie will capture that."
