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Jaume Collet-Serra Circling a Remake of Melville's 'Le Cercle Rouge'

by Alex Billington
February 18, 2011
Source: Deadline

Hitting theaters this weekend is Unknown, directed by Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, who has been dabbling mostly in horror up until going action-thriller with that Neeson movie. What else does he got coming up? Deadline is reporting that Collet-Serra is now making a deal to direct Red Circle, the remake of the 1970 Jean-Pierre Melville-directed heist film Le Cercle Rouge. We first heard about this last summer, when The Road director John Hillcoat was attached, but it looks like he's moved on to Wettest County in the World. It is being written by Eastern Promises writer Steven Knight for the company Working Title Films.

This isn't the only major project Collet-Serra secured recently - he also booked a deal to direct supernatural flick Harker for Warner Bros as well. This Red Circle remake he's now attached to has been in the works for a while with numerous directors and actors attached at various times, so there's no guarantee it'll even get made. Deadline says that "Collet-Serra hasn't fixed on his next feature assignment" and will direct episodes of ABC's "The River" after finishing all of his Unknown promotion, but after that, it's still undecided. This could be interesting, but why do we even need to attempt a remake of a French classic? Seems unnecessary.

For those unfamiliar with Melville's Le Cercle Rouge, the film is about an aristocratic thief who is released from prison the same day a murderer has escaped the custody of a police superintendent. The thief ends up robbing his mob boss and enlisting the help of the murderer and an ex-police sharpshooter for a jewel heist. Meanwhile, the mob boss persuades a nightclub owner and a pimp to help him trap the thieves, while the police officer is also looking to apprehend the convict. I've seen Le Cercle Rouge and it's a damn good heist flick and I can't see a US remake being any better, but that's not going to stop them. Is there any hope?

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