MichaelDavis Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Allow my paranoia to run rampant for a second because I'm beginning to think the big movie studios are taking their remake ideas from my Netflix account. Languishing somewhere around #57on my queue is Peter Hyams' Outland, which means I'll probably get to it just as Warner Bros' remake of it hits theaters. Yes, that's right -- Warner Bros is remaking Outland. It isn't just an idle fancy either, as The Hollywood Reporter says that the studio is already well into production. Michael Davis is set to direct, and Chad St. John is penning the screenplay.

As you might remember, the original starred Sean Connery as a marshall on one of Jupiter's moons. His one year tour of duty isn't exactly peaceful as several miners meet violent ends, and none of the other colonists are willing to assist in the pursuit of justice. Connery is forced to take on the colony's evil administators all by his lonesome. Yes, that is also the plot of High Noon if you hadn't noticed. (But you did. You read Cinematical!)

To be honest, it's not so much a remake as a complete rewrite. The new Outland will be stripped of its western influences, expanded into a bigger "tentpole" movie, and will take place on a city that orbits the Moon. Our hero is a cop who is only a week away from retirement when he stumbles on a murderous conspiracy that's endangering the entire Moon City. He must decide whether to walk away and retire to Earth with his wife, or face "taking on a private army with his overachieving ex-partner and wife's former boyfriend." I think we know which one he picks, or else there's not going to be much of a movie. But hey, even if you can follow the plot from here, at least they're trying something new, and drawing influence from the hardboiled detectives instead of Gary Cooper and Connery, right?

One of the more interesting comic book projects in the pipeline is an adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass (title likely to be changed?), directed by Matthew Vaughn. We previously covered the action comedy -- about a high school dork who decides to become a superhero despite not possessing any of the gifts normally associated with superherodom -- here and here.

Perhaps hinting at the tone of the eventual film, the first bit of casting was Superbad's Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Though he may seem like the perfect choice to play a dweeb with delusions of grandeur, Mintz-Plasse was cast in a supporting role. A week later, they've cast the lead: it'll be 18 year-old Aaron Johnson, whom you may remember as little Ed Norton in The Illusionist. Joining him will be Nicolas Cage and TV vet Lyndsy Fonseca. Fonseca will play the love interest, while Cage will play the father of Elizabeth Rappe's future daughter, "a vicious, foul-mouthed 11-year-old who chops down criminals with a katana." Apparently he's trained her to do that as part of his quest to take down a druglord.

Mark Millar, by the way, is the dude behind Wanted, a comic that was about 250 times crazier than this summer's movie adaptation. I'd like to see Shoot 'Em Up's Michael Davis get a crack at a Millar project, but I'll settle for the ultra-talented Vaughn, who can do both over-the-top violence (see Layer Cake) and elegant movie versions of difficult source material (see Stardust).

Earlier this month, Scott Weinberg threw up a link to the Shoot 'Em Up trailer, which he so perfectly described as "maniacally kinetic." (Before I go on, please head over to the post and watch it, if you haven't yet.) It's got Paul Giamatti as the bad guy, Clive Owen as the sharp-shooting good guy and Monica Bellucci as the woman whose baby he is trying to protect. It's kind of like the old days of Tarantino -- a macho film that knows just what to say and what to do to make you beyond-excited in that fanboy/fangirl sort of way. Now, I start with this, because the whole thing sounds a lot different (not in a bad way) once you learn what Michael Davis' inspiration was.

In an interview with VH1, the writer/director says that it is like a live-action Looney Toons: "It is a kind of violent cartoon. Clive has this Bugs Bunny quality because he's always getting out of these crazy situations and [at the same time] screwing over Paul Giamatti. We even enhanced that later on in the story: Paul's ringtone is the Wagner [opera parody] 'Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit.' It really does have a Looney Toons quality." In fact, VH1 says it's pervasive throughout, having seen 20 minutes of the film: "Owen shoots an oil can, then uses the dripping grease to slide across an entire warehouse floor, shooting bad guys; throws a rope down a stairwell and acrobatically twirls 10 stories, shooting bad guys; breaks his windshield, hits an enemy's truck, flies through both windshields, spins and, yes, shoots bad guys. And oh yeah, he does all of this while holding the baby." It's obvious in the trailer (and this news) that they don't take themselves so seriously, and what could be better than some Toons for the adult set, that ties into our cartoon youth with guns, machismo and kick-ass action?

What is it with Clive Owen and his fiercely protective behavior around babies? First he was charged with saving the future of humanity in the brilliant Children of Men, and now he's forced to protect a newborn from a feral Paul Giamatti and what looks like more gun-totin' villains than Crank, Running Scared and Smokin' Aces put together. Oh yeah, and Monica Bellucci is involved! Sold!

Click right here to enjoy the maniacally kinetic trailer for Michael Davis' Shoot 'Em Up. It's obviously a hyper-nutty action flick in the vein of the movies mentioned above, which means it's already high on my Must See list. Attentive movie geeks may remember Michael Davis from low-budgeters like Monster Man, 100 Girls and 100 Women. (They're two different movies.) The IMDb indicates that New Line will be unleashing this one on September 7, which would put it up against a few comedies (The Brothers Solomon, The Nanny Diaries, The Savages) and the long-awaited Hatchet.

Apparently the movie's about nothing more than an ultra-tough Brit who stands in the way of a ruthless hitman and his innocent prey. Good enough for me. Yeah, yeah, so it looks mindless. Forgive me for enjoying the hell out of Clive Owen's bad-ass mode, Paul Giamatti cackling like a lunatic and the obvious assets of Ms. Bellucci.