Scott Turow and Brian Dennehy

We are excited to welcome Brian Dennehy to Live Talks Los Angeles on November 5th (The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica), where he will interview Scott Turow.  They will discuss the writing life and Turow’s upcoming new novel, Identical. Ticket info here.

Veteran actor Brian Dennehy has received countless honors over his storied career on stage and screen: a Golden Globe, two Tonys, Emmy nominations, and the adoration of generations of fans.  His role as Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Horgan in the 1990 film adapation of Turow’s novel Presumed Innocent is what inspired us to invite him to lead this conversation.  This winter, Mr. Dennehy will be in residence in Los Angeles as he appears at the Mark Taper Forum as Thomas in the “Steward of Christendom.”

We welcome Scott Turow back to Live Talks Los Angeles. He first appeared in 2010 when we featured him in conversation with Dustin Hoffman. Here’s the video.

Identical is loosely based on the myth of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons (one mortal and one immortal) of Zeus.  As the story goes, when Castor was killed, Pollux begged Zeus to share his immortality with his brother so that the twins could remain together – Zeus allowed it, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini.  Identical tells the story of Paul and Cass Giannis, identical twins, whose future was bright until one fateful day in 1983 when Athena “Dita” Kronon—then-girlfriend of Cass Giannis—was murdered after her family’s summer party.

Identical  opens in 2008 as Paul Giannis is mid-way through what looks to be a successful run for mayor of Kindle County, and Cass is about to be released from prison after serving 25 years for Dita’s murder. Dita’s brother, Hal Kronon, is willing to do whatever he can to insure that Cass stays in prison and, using his vast resources, he gets a legal team and an ex-FBI agent—who is the head of security for the Kronon family business —to convince a judge to re-open the investigation into Dita’s murder.  The private investigator on retainer for the Kronons is a former homicide detective who headed the initial investigation.  Tim Brodie, now 81, has his doubts about the way the case unfolded all those years ago.  By the time he was brought in, the crime scene had been compromised several times over by Dita’s family and local police, and then Cass Giannis confessed before everything was fully investigated.  Now that the case is being reexamined, Tim feels personally motivated to get to the bottom of the complex web of murder, sex, and betrayal.