AHC: Gittes Trilogy a Classic

[Plumber]

Chinatown is set in 1937 and portrays the manipulation of a critical municipal resource — water — by a cadre of shadowy oligarchs. It was the first part of Robert Towne's planned triology about the character J.J. Gittes, the foibles of the Los Angeles power structure, and the subjugation of public good by private greed. The second part, The Two Jakes, was about another grab for a natural resource — oil — with a thicker-torsoed Gittes in 1948. It was directed by Jack Nicholson and released in 1990, but the second film's commercial and critical failure scuttled plans to make Gittes vs. Gittes, about the third finite resource — land — in Los Angeles, circa 1968.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown_(1974_film)#cite_note-inter-7

1974's Chinatown (directed by Roman Polanski) was supposed to be the first of a trilogy written by Robert Towne. The second, 1990's The Two Jakes was to be directed by Towne, but after a dispute Jack ended up directing it. Polanski was of course unavailable to direct. The Two Jakes was poorly received, so poorly that Gittes vs. Gittes, which would have dealt with land and Gittes' divorce in the twilight of his life, is for all intents and purposes cancelled.

So the crux of this challenge is to make The Two Jakes really really good, so Gittes vs. Gittes can come out (supposedly Towne thought The Two Jakes was the weakest idea he had, but thought that appropriate for a mid-life "pastoral" work).