“I want to write a movie for Jack.” “What kind of movie?” “A detective movie. Maybe Jane Fonda for the blonde.
” “What’s it about?” “Los Angeles. In the ’30s. Before the war.
” “What happens?” “I don’t know. That’s all I know.” Thus spake screenwriter Robert Towne to his then-girlfriend, Julie Payne, one night in 1970.
And therein lies the seeds not only of “Chinatown” (1974), one of the greatest dark fables America has ever told about itself, but the legend of Towne himself, the most celebrated screenwriter of the New Hollywood era of the 1970s and a shadowy, mercurial figure behind the titles..
