I recently attended a press junket for Sylvester Stallone's amazingly violent new Rambo (in theaters January 25th). There, he was asked about his plans to remake the 1974 Charles Bronson classic Death Wish. Peter told you a bit about the new Death Wish in November, when Variety announced that Stallone would direct and star. The film will be scripted by Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato (The Net, The Game, T3: Rise of the Machines). Stallone says he thinks Death Wish, done today "would be volcanic." And despite the lack of success for recent revenge thrillers like Death Sentence and The Brave One, I think he might be right. Below is what Stallone had to say about his take on the material:

The idea in the original of Jeff Goldblum as a mugger who breaks into an apartment seems very simplistic. It gives you an idea of how bad the elevation of violence has become. I want to focus on defense attorneys, on the people who are really allowing this crap to happen. Not so much the guy out in the street, but who permits it? What if it happened to you? What if your daughter down the hall was grabbed and her eyes were put out, would you want to defend that guy? There's moral questions here that are being presented that have not been asked in 30 years. So it's not the pacifist. This fella I see, and I'm giving you a little hint here, he was a very violent human being. An ex-convict who walked the walk, was accepted back into society, did everything he could to be clean. When the incident happens, he reverts back, and it's like "My God." Now you've unleashed a man who really understands the world of violence. He isn't burdened with this passive-aggressive conscientious objector thing that's been done. It's really what happens when the wolf in sheep's clothing goes back to the wolf.

What do you think? Does Stallone's Death Wish sound like something you Wish you could see?

Sylvester Stallone is ready to step into Charles Bronson's shoes. Variety reports that Stallone is in talks to direct and star in a remake of Death Wish, to be scripted by Michael Ferris and John Brancato. That's the writing team responsible for The Net, The Game, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines -- and Catwoman. Draw your own conclusions, but with Stallone in the director's chair, this could be another project that ends up better than it initially sounds.

Michael Winner's 1974 original starred Charles Bronson as mild-mannered Paul Kersey, a New York City architect transformed into a killing machine meting out street justice after his wife is brutally murdered and his daughter is raped. Four sequels would follow over the next 20 years, but with Bronson's passing in 2003, the search for a successor was inevitable.

Early September saw two new vigilantes hit the screen: Kevin Bacon in Death Sentence, a straightforward and enjoyable revenge flick misunderstood to be a message movie, and Jodie Foster in The Brave One, which drew more direct comparisons to Death Wish because it was set in Manhattan. It's hard to imagine that a new Death Wish will try to be profound or offer anything new on the subject, but if it's well made and Stallone restrains himself a bit, that may be enough.

Stallone has been working hard on the comeback trail and made some major coin for the backers of Rocky Balboa. He also has Rambo due out on January 25, 2008, a release date that's normally a death wish of its own, but the trailer looks fairly awesome as an action pic. If Rambo hits big, this deal for Death Wish will generate even more excitement. And if Sly's Death Wish hits big, MGM is prepared to make it into a franchise for him, which could sustain Stallone well into his 70s (Bronson was in his early 70s when he made his last Death Wish). While you contemplate that thought, MGM is hoping to start production before March 2008.

As if he didn't have too many comic book adaptations to write, Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand) has been named as the new screenwriter of Joel Silver's remake of The Dirty Dozen, which we unfortunately heard about early last year. Originally it was reported that the movie was being scripted by three high-profile writers, André Nemec, Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg, but apparently their work isn't good enough and a rewrite is now necessary. Of course, one has to wonder why Silver needs to go through so many writers when there's already a perfectly good screenplay by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller. It isn't like too much needs to be updated; the movie is set in World War II. I'm not familiar with E.M. Nathanson's original novel, though, and I guess the first movie may have omitted some things that the new adaptation could include. Anyway, I guess it just isn't common practice to reuse an old script when remaking an old movie.

For those who haven't seen The Dirty Dozen, it's about a group of military criminals sent on a suicide mission to assassinate Nazi officers. It features an iconic ensemble of actors, most of whom were reunited to voice characters in Small Soldiers as a sort of homage. To the faithful, it will be very, very difficult to see a new version without Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, George Kennedy and the rest. I don't know what the time frame is for the production of the remake, but we may get to see it as early as next year. And if Silver can get the project going soon, maybe it can even go head to head with Penn's buddy Bryan Singer's Hitler assassination movie, Valkyrie. They might even make a good double feature -- or you can rent the original Dirty Dozen and then go see Valkyrie and more possibly experience a great double feature.

Some weeks I find it's very rewarding to research the lesser-known titles in a selective release list like the one maintained by the good folks at DVD Journal. Dave Kehr's column in The New York Times is indispensable; he gives glowing reviews this week to martial-arts masterpiece The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Allan Dwan's version of The Three Musketeers. But what if you're in the mood for something less action-oriented? The Criterion Collection rolls out two arthouse films by Yugoslavian director Dušan Makavejev (WR: Mysteries of the Organism and Sweet Movie) and one Brit boarding-school classic (Linday Anderson's If...). Digging a bit deeper in the list, I wondered about Close to Home, an Israeli film about two young women doing compulsory military service in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Christopher Campbell was none too impressed when he saw it at Tribeca last year: "Basically it follows the same pattern of the [buddy-cop, action-comedy] genre, but it leaves out the action and the comedy so all that is left is a predictable narrative with no entertainment appeal. Even with its likeable, attractive leads, the film is a lifeless effort." The other reviews I found agreed with his assessment.

What about The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico, originally billed as a "honky-tonkumentary"? Joe Leydon in Variety said it could stand to lose a third of its running time, but it did have "some modestly amusing snippets of on-target satire, along with a few hilarious episodes of self-parody by real-life pop and country music heavyweights." I'm not a fan of mockumentaries, but if you are, you might want to give it a chance. I also searched for information about 1968's Honor Among Thieves (AKA Farewell, Friend), directed by Jean Herman. Alain Delon and Charles Bronson star as two former members of the French Foreign Legion who end up cracking a safe. This is actually the one I'm most interested in, simply because I like the premise and the teaming of ultra-suave Delon and ultra-gruff Bronson. It was originally released on DVD in 1998; the new release is from Lionsgate and features Bronson alone on the cover. But if you're truly not in an action mood, I'm afraid there's not much for you this week on the indie side of the DVD aisle.

Look, I'm not a huge raging AICN fan -- something about their absurd use of exclamation points just really gets to me sometimes!!! With that said, I've been really enjoying their 20 days of questions with Sylvester Stallone and, if anything, I'm a much bigger fan of Stallone now than I was before I began reading. The guy is such a good writer (so much so that I wish he would write more screenplays) and has provided a truly well thought-out answer for every single question tossed in his direction. And trust me, a lot of these questions have been random -- real random -- but I'd rather read this than watch him on, say, Inside the Actor's Studio ...

("Mr. Stallone, Farty McMatthews -- second year acting student in the range division. I have a question regarding the method in which you feel emotions through your consciousness -- can you possibly delve into some more psychological ..." Oh, just shut up. Don't you feel like punching those people sometimes. Just, like, a little?)

Anyway, on Day 19 of the questions, Sly finished things off by asking the AICN readers whether or not they would be down for a remake of Death Wish. Says Stallone, "I'd like to get your feedback on the idea of remaking Death Wish with a slightly different slant. Instead of the Charles Bronson character being an architect; my version would have him as a very good cop who had incredible success without ever using his gun. So when the attack on his family happens, he's really thrown into a moral dilemma in proceeding to carry out his revenge." Man Sly, get the hell out of the seventies, you're killing us here!

Earlier this month, there was a Reuters story about director Michael Winner and his claim that his 1974 film Death Wish is the most copied in the history of cinema. I haven't gotten to the point where I agree with that statement completely, but today I'm seeing one more piece of evidence, at least. Fox Searchlight has just made a deal to distribute a movie called Stephon's Coroner for State Street (I don't understand the title, either), which is kinda like Death Wish, but with and for moms. The script, written by Pat Gilfillan follows two single women who become friends after they each lose a son to useless acts of violence. When the judicial system fails them, they become vigilantes. George Tillman will direct.

There is no vengeance like that of a mother. So who should play these renegade moms? The best choice for one of them would be Julianne Moore, but I guess I'm typecasting since she seems to be playing a lot of mom's with missing children these days. For the other, perhaps Sissy Spacek? Or would that be too much red hair? Maybe it could serve as some cheesy metaphor?