SOURCE: Welkos, Robert W., and Amy Wallace. “Polanski Returning? That's Turning Heads in Hollywood.” Los Angeles Times (3 October 1997): F1, F21.

In the following essay, Welkos and Wallace discuss Polanski's career and his current status as a viable director in the Hollywood film industry.

Roman Polanski.

The name is steeped in Hollywood lore, from the director's critically acclaimed films Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby to the stark details of his personal life: the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by followers of Charles Manson, and Polanski's flight from America in 1978 to avoid sentencing for having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

No wonder, then, that Hollywood is buzzing over the news that the director might be negotiating with prosecutors and the courts to surrender and return to Los Angeles.

Does the director still retain the clout he had before he fled, or has the industry changed too dramatically in...