Adrian Askarieh Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last summer, the trades reported that Bruce Willis was in talks to play Kane in a big screen adaptation of Kane and Lynch. Perhaps you were one of the game fans excited by that prospect, but as the long months wore on, you may have forgotten such a fleeting news item. But Kane and Lynch didn't go anywhere, and GameDaily is confirming that Bruce Willis is ready to go in with his guns blazing, with Simon Crane directing, and that filming will begin in March 2010. They're just looking for their Lynch and their locations.

GameDaily caught up with producer Adrian Askarieh, who confirmed Willis' casting, and shared just what had lured him to the project in the first place. "[Kyle Ward's] script has been incredibly well-received around town. After Bruce Willis read it, he called it one of the best action scripts he's ever read, and Bruce is an expert in terms of action scripts because he's read everything over the last 20 years." Askarieh describes the film as "a great buddy action movie" (nothing's funnier than kidnapping and death row) and promised that'll remain faithful to the game, at least in terms of its plotline. "It's going to have the basic premise. But the details for the movie are going to be different. It's not going to have every sequence from the game, but it's essentially the story of a mercenary teaming up with a schizophrenic psychopath to save his wife and daughter."

While none of us hold out hope for video game adaptations, I would like this one to turn out solid. It's two death-row inmates (one of whom is heavily medicated) doing rotten, sociopathic things in the name of rescue. It's the kind of movie Hollywood should be able to make, but probably won't, even with an action heavy like Willis.

[via Empire]

It looks like Lionsgate is not wasting any time when it comes to their big-screen version of the upcoming Eidos Interactive video game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Variety reports that Jieho Lee is in talks to direct the film version of the action title. This would be the third film for writer/director Lee, whose last pic was the drama The Air I Breathe with Sarah Michelle Gellar, which played at Tribeca. There are already two scripts being prepped Kane; one by Lee and Bob De Rosa -- who was also his co-writer on The Air I Breathe, and the other is a solo effort from Kyle Ward -- a 27 year old assistant at Dreamworks who, just over a month ago, had sold his first script and was then hired to pen the adaptation for Lionsgate. On board to produce are Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter -- they are also the producing team behind Hitman (another Eidos title), and the graphic novel adaptation Hack/Slash.

The storyline of both the film and the game center on a psychopath (Lynch) and a mercenary (Kane) out for revenge. The two are kidnapped from death-row by Kane's former team and forced into retrieving a stolen fortune -- and like most shooter action games, there are shadowy conspiracies and a relatively high body count. The video game is set for release this fall for X-Box 360, so judging by the speed with witch Lionsgate is working on the project, the film might even try for an early release and use the game's release for a little built-in marketing.

It's starting to look like Eidos Interactive is looking to flood the market with big screen video game remakes. Now that Hitman finally has its...well, Hitman. Eidos has already struck another deal with Lionsgate for their new action title Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, a game that hasn't even been released. Eidos made the deal with Hitman producers Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter. Askarieh and Alter are also on board to produce the big screen adaptation of the horror comic Hack/Slash for Rogue Pictures, and Askarieh is working on a Spy Hunter project with Universal.

The game centers on a mercenary named Kane and a heavily medicated psychopath named Lynch on their way to Death Row. The pair are kidnapped by Kane's former gang and forced to retrieve a stolen fortune. The game was first announced at a Microsoft conference in September and is set for release some time this year. The game is a co-operative action story and Xbox is hoping it will be a hit among online players. Game developers even promised that the characters' personalities would influence the game play. If the video game is promising a sophisticated story line and fleshed-out characters, we can only hope that the movie version does the same.