jonathan hensleigh Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Despite having previously established my feelings about this weekend's Quarantine, I must confess a new willingness to give it a fair shot later tonight. Regardless, this week's Cinematical Seven is all about first-person horror movies, with a couple of oh-so-subjective stipulations:

• We're leaving The Blair Witch Project (1999) out of this. It might not have been the first of these movies, but it was undeniably the most successful and influential. There are only seven slots here, and I feel like everyone has already made clear whether they find this scary or just stupid (I fall in the former grouping, though I say this having not seen the flick since my teens). If you still feel the need to take BWP to task, comment away.
• Also omitted will be The Last Broadcast (1998), which drew mild controversy at the time of its release for its similarity to Blair Witch. I'm only not writing about it because the copy of it sitting just over on my shelf here has remained unwatched. My bad.
• The previous film by the guys behind Quarantine is The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), which -- being in the hands of the Weinsteins -- has not yet seen the light of day beyond a couple of festivals. Having not attended any of said festivals myself, I'll just sit here and guess that it'll get dumped to DVD (probably under the Dimension Extreme label), and not any earlier than next year at that.

Now, on with the list...

Having just 'wrapped up' Pirates of the Caribbean (Is it really the end, or will we be inundated with extra sequels?), Jerry Bruckheimer has lined up his next action flick. This time, it's free of the roaring "Yarr!" of swashbucklers, and instead, will deal with a sea of bullets. Variety has reported that Walt Disney Co. has picked up Jonathan Hensleigh's action pitch, Nine Lives, for him to pen and Bruckheimer to produce. Hensleigh has a few directorial stints under his belt, including The Punisher, but he is most known for his screenwriting -- he's the pen behind Die Hard: With a Vengeance and Jumanji.

That's not all. Hensleigh has a long history with Bruckheimer -- he was an executive producer on Con Air, Armageddon, and Gone in Sixty Seconds, he wrote Armageddon along with J. J. Abrams, and he also rewrote the script for The Rock, although he was never officially credited. Considering the success of these films, I'd be very surprised if this drama, about a Manhattan detective called 'Nine Lives' who survives a slew of shootings while on duty, doesn't pack a punch at the box office and rake in the cash. He had originally sold the project to Disney years ago, when he was interviewing for a writing job with The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, but this deal, at $1.75 million, is just a bit sweeter. I wonder if other writers out there will start dusting off their old, forgotten scripts?

Walt Disney Pictures is finally moving forward with a sci-fi project called Gemini Man, which blockbuster producer Jerry Bruckheimer is producing. Not to be confused with the 1976 television series of the same name -- which could make for a good adaptation or remake -- the movie is about an aging hitman being hunted by his young clone. The clone has been sent to enforce the elder's retirement so that it can replace him. The idea has been around for at least four years, when the CGI team The Secret Lab (Kangaroo Jack; Snow Dogs) was doing test effects involving a young Mel Gibson from The Year of Living Dangerously interacting with an older Gibson from Payback. Originally written by Darren Lemke, the script had then been redone by Armageddon's Jonathan Hensleigh. Now, the project is getting another kick start by Troy's David Benioff, who is also writing the Wolverine spin-off for Fox. Who will play the young and old version of the hitman (same actor? different actors? father and son?) is still up in the air.

The idea of a character fighting a version of himself has been around for years in many different forms, and yet it remains an interesting concept. And it can be done in so many different ways: twins; evil doppelgangers; time travel; split-personalities (I'd link, but I don't want to spoil any films); face-switching. The clone device is not completely fresh -- see The Sixth Day and The Island (actually, don't) -- but the plot of Gemini Man still sounds promising. Just imagine what it would be like to fight a younger you. The clone will have your strength at a time when you were likely more fit, but you presumably have more experience and intelligence. Who will win? The simple Hollywood idea is to have the older hitman win, but if both versions are played by a hot 20-something actor, with the "real" hitman portrayed with old-man makeup, then much of the audience would probably rather see the clone win. Either way, if Benioff can deliver a smart script, hopefully one that comments on the issue of age in the job market -- or even better, self-reflectively on the issue of age in Hollywood -- then the movie will be worth-seeing (especially if it can go head-to-head against the similarly themed Logan's Run remake). Of course, watching a fight sequence where, say, Josh Hartnett beats himself up, could be appealing, as well.

Back in October, Cinematical's comic book guru Marky B. let us know that a sequel to Jonathan Hensleigh's The Punisher was being discussed ... although it was only in the "talking about it" phase. But now that Lionsgate has released an extended director's cut of the flick, there's been a lot more buzzings about a follow-up. (Having recently seen the extended version, I do think it's an improvement over the theatrical cut -- but also that Mr. Hensleigh missed a golden opportunity to excise some of the lamer bits.)

The Punisher himself (Deep Blue Sea's Thomas Jane) recently informed IGN Movies that the sequel is almost certainly moving forward ... provided Hensleigh produces a viable screenplay, that is. Apparently the first movie had an inordinately low budget for this type of project (let's just say less than $20 million), and has proven itself to be DVD-popular enough to warrant a second spin. No word yet on how Lionsgate/Marvel feels about this plan, but if Mr. Jane is to be believed it certainly looks like we'll be getting a harsher, darker Punisher adventure some time relatively soon.

Oh, and if the sequel does go through, this guy will be the villain.