Director David Ayer and Keanu Reeves on the set of Street Kings Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

If any filmmaker has his ear to the ground in Los Angeles, it's writer-director David Ayer. But the sounds he hears are not smooth-talking agents, studio execs or producers. Instead, he's tuned into trash-talking cops, gang-bangers, dope dealers, drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes, rapists and thugs of just about every stripe. It's what he knows, having spent part of his youth on the streets of South Central L.A. And it's what he's made most of his movies about, first as a writer (The Fast and the Furious, Training Day, Dark Blue, S.W.A.T.) and then as a director (Harsh Times).

Ayer's new film, Street Kings, is in this same twisted vein, though with an added dimension: One of the credited writers is James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia). As a result, the movie has a particularly black heart, in this case belonging to Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves), a cop who doesn't seem to be familiar with due process. While Ludlow blows away perps and plants evidence, his superior, Captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), grins and watches his back — until he can't anymore.

While anxiously awaiting the film's release, Ayer, 39, spoke about the development process, Reeves, and the subject he knows the most about — cops.

I saw the movie the other night. I thought, Wow, this is delirious. Somehow I'd forgotten that Ellroy was associated with it.
Explains a little bit of the sickness. He's got the off-kilter thing nailed.

You can't manufacture that.
No, it's organic.

Did you collaborate with him, or was it already set up?
It was pretty well fixed by the time I came along. He had written it about ten years ago. It took place after the O.J. (Simpson) verdict. There had been a series of writers, and it was set in modern day, and the whole racial component got really diminished. When I came on board Keanu was already attached. It basically had found its shape, so my job was really just tuning the dialogue for my actors.