evil twins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

According to Screen Daily, Law Abiding Citizen now has a director in Frank Darabont. Citizen is the first movie to be produced under Gerard Butler's production shingle; you can read all about Evil Twins and its upcoming slate here (I am gently encouraging you to be interested in this fledgling company).

Production is set to begin on August 18th in Detroit, which I hear is becoming the new Shreveport. It's being filmed on a shoestring budget of $40 million, and the screenplay has been penned by Kurt Wimmer.

The plot has been changed quite drastically since it was first tossed around. Originally, Butler was an assistant D.A. who finds himself at the center of a traumatized victim's vigilante plot. Now, it has been revamped into the story of a criminal mastermind who controls a city from the confines of his prison cell. (Which explains why Darabont was drawn to it, and why he's a good pick. Prison dramas are a good specialty for him.) Butler is the assistant D.A. who stands in the mastermind's way.

Revisionism and remakes, those are the buzz words these days. The Hollywood Reporter posts that the Film Department, the indie production company run by Mark Gill and Neil Sacker, won the bidding war for Galahad, a revisionist version of the classic King Arthur story.

Is it really edgy to revise King Arthur anymore? We've already had the ultra-feminist version with Mists of Avalon; we recently saw the "historical" version with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley. I suppose we haven't had a version yet that changes all the names -- and here it is. Galahad portrays King Arthur as an aging, cowardly king, who is murdered by the young and ambitious Queen Guinevere. She blames the crime on Sir Galahad, who must escape this death sentence, vanquish the forces of evil, and return Camelot to its former glory.

Call me crazy, but I would just like an ordinary version -- with Merlin, Morgan LeFay, the forbidden passion of Lancelot and Guinevere, and Arthur as the Once and Future King. Is Excalibur (which I always found too nightmarish, but I do respect it as a solid attempt) the only one we're ever going to get? It can't all end with Clive Owen, can it?

The Film Department is confident that the actor's strike won't harm their fledgling production, as the SAG will grant companies like them a waiver. Interestingly, the company is also set to begin shooting Gerard Butler's Law Abiding Citizen with the actor's new Evil Twins shingle. Galahad + Gerard Butler makes me wonder if he'll wind up producing and playing that pure and chivalrous knight. He's fond of the sword genre, especially if it has a revisionist edge. I wouldn't be surprised -- and you will have heard it here first.