Judge: Dog Will Hunt

Every Dog has his day—on the big screen.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has smacked down a petition by Jesse James Hollywood to halt the release of Universal's Alpha Dog, ruling that the First Amendment trumps the possibility that the movie may unduly taint the jury pool in Hollywood's upcoming murder trial.

Hollywood, an accused drug dealer and murder suspect, and one of the youngest men to make the FBI's most wanted list, sought to block the release of the film, which is purportedly based on his story. The film, starring Justin Timberlake, Emile Hirsch and Bruce Willis is slated to hit theaters in January.

In Wednesday's decision against an injunction, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner cited legal precedent to find tthat  Hollywood's complaint didn't meet the standard needed to thwart filmmakers' freedom of speech rights.  .

"The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that government restriction of speech in the form of a prior restraint against the media constitute the most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights," Klausner said in his opinion. "Prior restraints may be justified only in the most exception circumstances, such as to prevent the dissemination of information about troop movements during wartime [or] to suppress information that would set in motion a nuclear holocaust."

While prosecutors hailed the decision, Hollywood's attorney, James Blatt, told E! Online he will appeal to the Ninth Circuit Appellate Court. Blatt says that that despite changing the names of its main characters, Alpha Dog's extremely close resemblance to the details of Hollywood's case could jeopardize his client from getting a fair trial by prejudicing potential jurors.

"It's very clear by the marketing and its Website that's Alpha Dog is based on Jesse James Hollwood's case and, in fact, much of the dialogue in the movie is directly taken from the police reports," the attorney said. "It depicts Mr. Hollywood in a very negative light and it's the district attorney's version of events."

The Nick Cassavettes-directed Dog made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, and claims to take its inspiration from "actual events"—specifically the real-life abduction and slaying of Southern California teen Nicholas Markowitz in August 2000 allegedly stemming from a beef between Hollywood and the victim's older stepbrother over a $1,200 drug debt.

Hollywood, then 20, fled the country. Authorities finally tracked him down in Brazil last March.  He was brought back to the U.S. where he's now awaiting trial that could, if he's convicted, result in the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty to the crimes.

In his complaint filed in October, Blatt argued that Dog's distribution should be halted, especially given that one of the key prosecutors in the case, Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen, provided the production with materials about the case and served as a consultant on the film.  As a result of that motion, Zonen was removed from the case.

Even with Zonen out, Blatt argued that the film should not be released because the damage had been done.

"Such an alliance or partnership between a district attorney's office and motion picture company has never occurred before. A prosecutor has never worked as a consultant to develop a screenplay while that case is pending," the legal eagle added. "While Mr. Zonen's actions were found to be egregious and the court removed him from the case,  his product still remains...and the movie's set to be released.

"If the [producers] simply went out on their own and made the movie, there would be no problem.  But because of the partnership with Zonen where he released all the materials to them and worked as a consultant, that's what we find objectionable," he said.

Hollywood's defense team even subpoenaed Cassavetes last August to find out the extent of the Santa Barbara D.A.'s relationship with the filmmakers.

Neither Cassavetes nor reps for Universal immediately commented on the ruling. There's also no word on when Hollywood, now 26, will go on trial, but Blatt said he expects it to go forward sometime in 2007 once the appeals have been issued. Barring a successful appeal, Alpha Dog is set for release Jan. 27.