Start the Presses

Director Bobby Roth can’t seem to avoid the press.

He’s about to start shooting his third film in less than two years that involves a journalist as a main character. This time, it’s “Keeper of the City” for Viacom Pictures, which rolls April 7 in Chicago for a week, then returns here to finish up.

Early last year, Roth made “The Man Inside” for New Line Cinema, a thriller about a famed German investigative journalist and master-of-disguise. He followed it with “Rainbow Drive,” a murder-mystery with a newspaper publisher as the villain.

“Keeper of the City” stars Louis Gossett Jr. as a detective and Peter Coyote as a crusading reporter on the trail of a frustrated investigative reporter who turns vigilante killer when he’s unable to bring down the Mob.

Roth shot much of “Rainbow Drive” at the old Herald-Examiner Building and may return there for “Keeper” location work.

Although the former documentary filmmaker likes the research and investigative qualities of moviemaking, he calls his recurring journalistic themes “just coincidence.”