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Sofia Vergara Joining Jason Statham in Remake of Goldman's 'Heat'

by Ben Pearson
March 8, 2013
Source: Variety

While it certainly hasn't made anyone's list of most anticipated films, the remake of the 1986 Burt Reynolds action film Heat is a fascinating prospect in Hollywood right now. Legendary writer William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride) wrote the original novel, the '86 screenplay, and the screenplay for the new remake, and while Brian De Palma was originally attached to direct, those duties have transferred to The Expendables 2 helmer Simon West. Now Variety reports that "Modern Family" and Machete Kills star Sofia Vergara will play the female lead opposite badass Jason Statham. More below!

Vergara's bombastic character on the perennially overrated "Modern Family" grew thin after about five minutes, so hopefully her role in Heat will be a little more of a subdued performance from the actress. She'll play a prostitute friend of Nick Escalante (Statham), a compulsive gambler who works "security" jobs in Las Vegas. When she gets roughed up by a sadistic member of the mob, Escalante turns vigilante and heads out for revenge. In the original movie - which is terrible, in case you were wondering - the prostitute character doesn't have much to do at all, so either Goldman filled out that role a little bit or Vergara will get about 15 minutes of screen time here.

One other piece of promising info in Variety's report is that Cory Yuen, who co-directed Statham in the first Transporter film, is on board this project as the action director and fight choreographer. With Yuen's pedigree, at least we're assured the action will be better than the lame fights in the '86 version. We're still not expecting Heat to be very good, but we're keeping an eye on it in a train-wreck sort of way.

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