‘Exit’ on Hold

The sound track to “Last Exit to Brooklyn” is already in record stores--but the release date for the film has been pushed back yet again. Cinecom’s R-rated adaptation of Hubert Selby’s gritty novel, directed by Ulrich Eidel (“Christiane F”), is now due in April.

Selby’s book delved into the seedy, violent life on the far side of New York City’s East River, set against a raging dockworker’s strike during the Korean War. In the film, shot on location in the decaying Red Hook section of Brooklyn, Jennifer Jason Leigh portrays down-and-out hooker, Tra-la-la, and Alexis Arquette the junkie transvestite, Georgette.

“It’s pretty graphic,” said Cinecom exec Richard Abramowitz. “I was even surprised that it got an R (from the MPAA ratings board). If there was an X rating for language alone, this would sure get it--and then there’s violence, sex and drugs. Imagine if all the worst in humanity came into one place at one time. That would be ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn.’ ”

Exec producer Anna Gross, however, insisted the film is not exploitative, including a gang-rape sequence near the movie’s end: “There is nothing in it that wasn’t in ‘The Accused,’ ” she said.

“We were very honest with the material, but we did it without exploiting,” added producer Bernd Eichinger.

Selby, by the way, appears briefly in the film--driving a car that accidentally runs over one of the principal characters.