IrwinWinkler Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With Death Wish being remade by Sylvester Stallone, it was clear that the entire Charles Bronson back catalog is up for grabs ... and the next up is 1973's The Mechanic. Last year, it was also reportedly being redone by Stallone, but it's now in new hands. Unfortunately, they're the hands of Simon West, who has nabbed his second remake job according to Variety. So now you know it'll look more like Con Air and Tomb Raider, and less grim and gritty, though it is being produced and updated by the original Mechanic men, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff.

The upside (to me, anyway) is that it will star the deliciously surly Jason Statham in the lead role -- and frankly, if you are going to remake a Bronson movie, Statham is your man. I think he's the closest we have to the manly men of 70s B-Movies and that we'll all live to see Crank remade by whoever succeeds him.

If you're unfamiliar with the plot, it goes a little something like this: an aging hitman named Arthur Bishop is assigned to kill Big Harry, one of the head men of his organization. At Harry's funeral, Bishop meets his son, Steve and takes him under his assassin wing. Bishop's shadowy organization doesn't like this though, and things get predictably bloody. The film is actually on Netflix Instant Watch, so check it out this weekend as a gritty come down from Star Trek ... that's what I'm going to do!

... and they say to the bartender, "Bet you never expected the three of us would team up on a film?" The bartender takes a good look at the three, goes back to cleaning a glass and replies, "Nah, I kinda expected it." Then Dylan McDermott, Brian Presley and Charles Winkler (son of Irwin Winkler) walk into the bar, and go, "Now what if we told you the three of us were involved too -- with Charles directing! And it's called Streets of Blood!" The bartender, tending to his glass, simply replies, "Nah, expected it." Fed up, Charles Winkler throws down his fist and shouts, "And it's gonna be a damn good film too!" Bartender drops his glass in a fit of laughter, looks up and cries, "Now THAT'S something I did not expect!" Everyone laughs and Erik will never become a comedian. The end.

Variety tells us the film centers on two cops dealing with "the lawlessness of New Orleans in the post-Katrina environment." Production begins next month. Another post-Katrina story, huh? Is it just me or is Hollywood really milking Hurricane Katrina? Perhaps I see more of it because I attend a lot of film festivals, and currently there are tons of Katrina docs and narratives on the fest circuit. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, it just seems like a lot and we're getting close to overkill. This one, however, does sound like it has promise. Plus I've always wanted to see Kilmer, 50 Cent and Stone together in one film. Why not, right?