Oscar Doc Preview: Ken Burns's Central Park 5 Vs. Peter Jackson's West Memphis 3?

Are the Central Park Five the next West Memphis Three? The teenagers wrongfully convicted in the vicious 1989 rape and beating of jogger Tricia Meili — and only released after the actual attacker came forward in 2002 — will be showcased in a forthcoming Ken Burns documentary entitled, appropriately enough, The Central Park Five. And while the film was funded in part by Burns's longtime patrons at PBS, the two-time Oscar nominee and four-time Emmy winner (who co-directed the project with his daughter Sarah Burns and son-in-law David McMahon) is taking the film to Cannes next month with the hope of finding a theatrical distributor: "We want to do it [theatrically] because the running time makes it manageable, and there's something urgent about it," he told TV Guide this week. This sounds... familiar?
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Atom Egoyan-Helmed West Memphis 3 Feature Film on Tap for Spring

It seemed inevitable that Hollywood would turn its gaze on the incredibly dramatic tale of Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwinthe, the men known as the West Memphis 3 who were freed today after spending 18 years serving time for the 1993 murders of three young boys. But this isn't an opportunistic stroke of timing; the film, which will be directed by Atom Egoyan, has been in development since 2006. More after the jump.

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