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Jason Statham to Star in New Brian De Palma-Directed 'Heat' Remake

by Alex Billington
February 8, 2012
Source: THR, Deadline

Another day, another remake. This time it's another one of those don't-mess-with-that classics - Heat, from 1987, starring Burt Reynolds (not Michael Mann's crime classic Heat from 1995). The project is being put together and sold in Berlin this week, which is why this news is hitting (via Deadline). Filmmaker Brian De Palma, who's been laying low recently after The Black Dahlia and Redacted, is set to direct this remake with Jason Statham in the lead. Sierra/Affinity is developing the film about a recovering gambling addict working as a "soft-hearted bodyguard" in Las Vegas who gets in over his head with a woman and the mafia.

This new Heat is just being announced and sold, but it sounds like they've got a good package together. Legendary Oscar winning writer William Goldman (Butch Cassidy, All the President's Men, The Princess Bride, Misery, Chaplin, Ghost and the Darkness, Dreamcatcher), who wrote the original 1987 script from his own novel, is writing the screenplay. Steven Chasman will produce alongside Jason Statham. Shooting is aiming to start in France in late 2012 or early 2013. Sold as a "tightly-wound, fun action-thriller," Statham's character doesn't use a gun, strictly "hand and edged-weapon combat" only, and he goes after a high-rolling mobster after he brutally beats up his female friend, but "ends up in more trouble than he ever imagined."

Out of everyone involved in this so far, I'm honestly most concerned about Brian De Palma. Not only have I seen his recent films, but I've encountered him multiple times at the Toronto Film Festival, and frankly I think he's just lost it. Kind of like Francis Ford Coppola and the kind of films he currently makes (refer to Twixt). Has De Palma devolved into the same? Only time will tell, but I'm much more excited about Statham starring in a William Goldman script, than I am about De Palma directing an action-drama again. This does sound like it could actually be pretty good, thankfully it's not a remake of Michael Mann's Heat. Stay tuned.

Filed under Casting, Development, Movie News

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