27/05/2005

Jiri Kajinek is a notorious Czech criminal. His arrest and subsequent trial and conviction have created more headlines than any other similar case as well as controversy as to whether his media portrait is drawn fairly. Ironically controversy is also the word when it comes to a cinema version of his story, with two sides battling it out as to who really has the rights to shoot it. In a case very much resembling the recent dispute between Oliver Stone and Baz Lurhmann over Alexander, director Jiri Svoboda and producer Petr Jakl have come head to head on the film adaptation of Kajinek's life story.

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Svoboda's interest in the idea dates back to last year's Karlovy Vary film festival when he announced his intention to shoot the film. "He has already put a lot of effort into it, he even wrote to Kajinek" says Adam Dvorak, the producer behind the project and the editor of Svoboda's last film Sametovi vrazi (Velvet killers), which also deals with the underworld. But Jakl of J.B.J Productions told the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes that his idea is even older. "We own the exclusive rights to Kajinek's story. We fought one and a half years to buy them from Kajinek himself - and for a very high price". Jakl, a stuntman by trade, argues that a court will stop any competitor should he wished to kick-start a project that resembles Kajinek's story even if it doesn't use his name. "This is absurd" replies Dvorak, "this is a public case, Kajinek wrote no book, what 'rights' are we talking about?".
The battle of words is set to continue with Svoboda leading the unofficial production race. His version with the working title Jiri Kajinek - Killer for hire or a Czech Monte Cristo? is set to start filming in autumn 2006 with a release date for November 2007. Meanwhile Jakl admits that he is still looking to secure the services of a director.