The Killer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

So before anyone accuses me of pandering to celebrity by putting a picture of Brad Pitt on this news item, I want you to know that I tried to find a picture that was a little more 'newsworthy', but caved when I came up with nothing. So, it's Pitt you get. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Pitt's production company, Plan B, have purchased the rights to the true life tale of local journalist Linda Trest, and her take-down of a conman posing as a federal agent in Gerald, Missouri.

Anthony Walton and Andrew Dresher have already been tapped to write the story of a small town journalist by the name of Linda Trest who had been receiving complaints about drug searches that had been conducted by Bill A. Jakob (a new-to-town federal agent who had supposedly been sent to handle the town's Methamphetamine problem). After conducting her own investigation, Trest uncovered that Jakob was an unemployed former trucking company owner, a former security guard, a former wedding minister and a former small-town cop -- one thing he wasn't was a federal agent. Jakob eventually pleaded guilty to impersonating an officer, and is facing six years in prison.

Plan B has been snatching up new properties left and right lately, including Eat, Pray, Love, with Ryan Murphy directing, The Killer and Black Hole with David Fincher, and the just-announced Battling Boy. Like with most Plan B projects, rumors are already brewing over whether or not Pitt will star (presumably as Jakob). But as we all know, Pitt has the bad habit of dropping out of movies even after signing on the dotted line, so we'll have to wait and see.

Say what you will about David Fincher's work, but I've been with him the whole way. Yeah, I even liked Alien³, at least at the time. Okay, I have to admit a lot of my attraction to Fincher's movies is actually to the cinematography of Darius Khondji and Harris Savides (now that I look back, I'm surprised to see they only shot two Fincher titles each). But hey, at least the guy can pick a DP, right? Well, I do appreciate Fincher's directorial talents, as well, and regardless of how few films I've seen this year, I continue to consider his Zodiac to be the best of the year. Fincher recently wrapped his next feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, which reunites him with Brad Pitt. Now that that's done, he may choose to direct an adaptation of a French graphic novel titled Le Tueur (The Killer). According to Variety, Paramount has bought the rights to the comic, written by Matz and illustrated by Luc Jacamon, with Fincher in mind. Producer Allesandro Camon (American Psycho) is writing the screenplay, and Pitt's company, Plan B, and Alexandra Milchan (Chapter 27) are producing.

Despite the need for a title change, and the fact that we have too many hitman movies coming out these days, the graphic novel should make for an interesting adaptation. Publisher's Weekly compared it to the films of Godard and Melville and the illustrations of Darwyn Cooke and even addressed Jacamon's placement of the camera (maybe Fincher should recruit him to be the film's DP). So, it already sounds like a cinematic story. Unfortunately, PW also claims there's too much "self-consciously cool narration," which can really ruin this type of pic. Another opinion of The Killer, this one from The Comic Book Bin, relates the graphic novel to American Psycho (nice, then, for Camon's involvement) and Leone/Eastwood westerns. Dark antihero with a gun? We see them every day. But with Fincher at the helm, I have higher hopes than usual.

John Woo was first cool in Hollywood back in the Stone Age (AKA the early 90s), thanks to festival exposure and a limited theatrical run for The Killer in 1990. The Killer is a superb action melodrama starring Chow Yun-Fat as a hitman who accidentally blinds a beautiful singer (Sally Yeh). He tries to make things right by carrying out another hit so he can earn enough money to pay for a cornea transplant for her, all while dealing with unhappy mobsters and a hard-nosed cop (Danny Lee) who becomes sympathetic to his cause.

A remake was planned; Walter Hill was to direct, and Richard Gere and Denzel Washington were mentioned as the leads. The purported script for the remake, set in Hong Kong, is still floating around the Internet, but the project became mired in Development Hell. The rights now evidently reside with Woo and his producing partner Terence Chang, and Chang says that a director has been hired for a remake, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The director is John H. Lee, with two features to his name: 1998's The Cut Runs Deep, a gangster coming of age tale set in New York City, and 2004's A Moment to Remember, a slow-paced romantic drama that drove me nuts -- and not in a good way -- but which is beloved by 895 voters at IMDb (8.5 rating).

Chang says that Lee will "move the action through L.A.'s Koreatown, Chinatown and South Central" and that "the actor has to be Korean in this version." Sounds like a good opportunity for a Korean actor. Director Lee told the trade paper: "I ask myself why they chose me and whether I can top it ... But then I realize it's not about making it better. It's about making my own version." Still sounds good; here's the part that makes me leery: "My strength is dealing with human emotions, austerity and elegance," says Lee. The original was overblown and over-the-top in every wonderful, melodramatic sense, so if Lee plans to make an "austere" and "elegant" action film, how is that going to get my blood pumping? Is he going to downplay or reduce the action scenes? A new script is in process.

This is another sign that Woo and Chang have tired of trying to get their own projects made in Hollywood. (The Battle of Red Cliff, directed by Woo, is due to wrap filming in Asia shortly and is looking for a US distributor.) But why do they feel the need to cannibalize the past? Blood Brothers, a reworking of Woo's earlier Bullet in the Head, met with mixed response in Asia and didn't make much headway with critics who saw it at the Venice and Toronto fests, which is not very encouraging when considering the prospects for a killer remake of The Killer. The announcement was made on the first day of the Asian Film Market, held in conjunction with the Pusan film festival.