You remember that Jan De Bont flick John Cusack signed on for ages ago? The one that was going to give us a 51-minute chase scene? It was appropriately named Stopping Power, and it had so much flipping power that it stopped its own production back in October. Co-star Melissa George then swore it was still in the works, but that never went anywhere, and now Cusack is pissed. TMZ reports that he's filed a lawsuit against Intermedia Film Equities USA (you can see the documents on the site).

According to the actor, the company convinced him to star in the ill-fated film, guaranteed that he would be paid $4.5 million, even if the movie didn't get made, and finally, that all of his expenses would be paid, which includes $50k to cover the cost of having his staff on location. Cusack's lawyer, Marty Singer, says that John got his butt to Germany, started production, and then was told that the company couldn't afford the guarantee. So, they're claiming the company fraudulently made these promises, and then wanted to renegotiate for a lower amount after ensnaring him. Johnny is looking for $5,600,000 plus punitives.

Will John win? Or, will Film Equities have the final stopping power?

I'm a Melissa George fan, although I think she's sort of wasted in most of the films she does. I'll say no more on that subject, since I'm already addressing it in my upcoming review of 30 Days of Night. Anyhow, the outspoken Aussie is making a small bit of news this morning, having told ComingSoon that, in spite of everything we've heard, Jan de Bont's Stopping Power, which was recently shut down, is completely back on and will begin shooting in March. "It's back on!" George tells the site, with typical breathlessness. "First of March. Three days into filming, we were in Berlin, they cancelled the film. It worked out so good, because I'm busy doing other things, and I could come back to shoot. HBO and I'm going away next Christmas, and then the strike happens next year, so I'm going to go away in March and do this. Look, anything can change, but it's on. It has to be on." That last part sounds like she might be sort of 'willing' the project into life, but still, she does give a solid date.

By the way, when I spoke with 30 Days of Night graphic novelist Steve Niles a couple of months back, he told me of early plans to push forward with a sequel to the film, called Dark Days, if everything went well at the box-office. Dark Days is a project that would be entirely focused around the character played by George -- is Hollywood ready to entrust her with carrying an entire action-horror film on her shoulders? I think it's a safe bet -- this is an actress with a lot of potential who could use a great, high-gloss breakout role like that. Stay tuned to Cinematical for all future info on Stopping Power and Dark Days, should they actually happen!

If there's one thing you can say for Jan De Bont's Stopping Power, it's that it has, well, stopping power. After signing John Cusack to star in the flick, and then promising us a 51-minute chase scene to wrap up the film (can that finish a film if it's at least half of the movie?), production has stopped yet again. Variety reports that some investors have questioned their involvement with the picture and pulled their funding, which, of course, stopped the film dead in its tracks. (Here is a link to JoBlo, as Variety's link to the story isn't working.) While I would have been interested to see how one could possibly pull off an almost-hour-long chase sequence, this is probably for the best. Unless De Bont finds more suckers investors to take over.

Now I can only hope, yet again, that Cusack's next film has the same fate. This leads me to a thought: what happened to John Cusack? While he's still loved by many, his drawing power has diminished greatly. Although he has worked continually over the years; remember when he starred in Grosse Pointe Blank and became the "it" man once again? From there, he had some decent roles, and then hit things out of the ballpark again with Being John Malkovich and High Fidelity. He was the guy to see, but then something happened. Did the allure fade and we got too used to him being around? It's time he ignores the crap and finds another tasty movie to remind us just how great Lloyd Dobler is. What do you think has happened to Cusack?

Jan de Bont and John Cusack? OK, sure, why not? According to the unending series of Cannes news reports at Variety, the director of Speed and that lovable guy from Say Anything are about to collaborate on Stopping Power, a $50 million action flick about a normal Joe test pilot who must rescue his daughter from evil kidnappers while vacationing in Germany. Production begins in August, and although the package has sold to a few foreign markets, we should expect some U.S. distribution news sooner rather than later.

What's particularly enticing about this project (aside from it marking Cusack's return to the action genre, a section he's avoided since his very amusing turn in Con Air) is that Mr. De Bont is promising to finish the flick with a 51-minute chase sequence. And it get even better: The story was hatched by Eric Red, the scribe who (once upon a time) penned The Hitcher and Near Dark, both of which are unquestionable classics of the horror genre because I said so. (Apparently Swordfish screenwriter Skip Woods also worked on the Stopping Power script.) The only sticking point (for me) is the involvement of Jan de Bont, a stellar cinematographer who graduated to director on the effortlessly entertaining Speed ... and then followed it up with Twister, Speed 2, The Haunting and Tomb Raider 2. Yikes.

Maybe if we all wish hard enough, John Cusack's latest role will wipe out the Children of Men rip-off, Talking with Dog, which still (luckily) hasn't gone into production. The rest of the films on his plate have already wrapped or gone into production. There's War, Inc., where Cusack plays a hit man assigned to kill a Middle East oil minister. With Mark Leyner's mind attached, it will undoubtedly go above and beyond what we could imagine. And there's Igor, the animated, star-studded evil science fair, movie that he took over from Christian Slater. Now, Cusack has signed on for an action thriller, of all things.

The film is called Stopping Power. (Doesn't it sound like something Steven Seagal would be in?) It will be directed by Jan de Bont, who started off with a bang with films like Speed and Twister, but then petered out a bit with Speed 2: Cruise Control and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Or, more appropriately, crashed and burned with the former and then petered out with the latter. The film, which will be written by Swordfish scribe Skip Woods and Hitcher scribe Eric Red, is about "a test pilot who sets off on a series of high-speed chases to save his kidnapped daughter from an escaped thief."

Woods seems to be a new addition to the roster, as IMDb lists only Red. The site also describes the plot a little differently: "A criminal on the run steals an RV with a young girl inside, then forces the girl's father to participate in his getaway by acting as a decoy for the police." I'm anxious to see if Cusack just picked this up for something different, or if it will be his gateway into action. Remember -- Bruce Willis was the goofy guy on Moonlighting well before he was John McClane.