Samuel L. Jackson & Luke Wilson Cast in ‘Meeting Evil’

With its myriad of shooting locations and ample tax breaks, Louisiana (New Orleans in particular) has become a popular shooting location for Hollywood filmmakers in the past few years. Just one of the many movies that has been shot in and around New Orleans in recent months was the blockbuster comic book movie Green Lantern, starring Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.

Now, according to Scene Magazine, a new film is slated for production in the Crescent City. It’s called Meeting Evil and it stars Luke Wilson and Samuel L. Jackson.

The movie, directed by Chris Fisher and also starring Leslie Bibb, is based on a 1992 novel by Thomas Berger. Here’s a brief synopsis of the movie, according to Scene.

Luke Wilson plays John Felton, a real estate salesman mired in depression resulting from the economic collapse. After being fired, he ends up going on a joy ride with a stranger named Richie (Samuel L. Jackson) that brings them down a path towards violence.

The script is described as “moody with elements of dark comedy,” which sounds like the type of thing that Luke Wilson and Samuel L. Jackson could both handle well. Though he doesn’t have as high a profile as his brother Owen Wilson, I think Luke Wilson is a talented actor who deserves more movies. He’ll make a solid straight man to Samuel L. Jackson, who should make an excellent crazy person, as he’s done many times in the past.

It’s unclear just how much of the movie will be based on the novel, but this Amazon.com book review by Lawrence Rungren of the Library Journal offers some additional plot details (which might be considered SPOILERS, so be advised).

Answering his door one morning, solidly middle-class John Felton finds a scruffy-looking man whose car is in need of a push. Responding helpfully despite his misgivings, John sets in motion a nightmarish series of events in which he becomes the unwitting accomplice of Richie Maranville, a psychotic criminal just released from a mental hospital. During their day-long crime spree, the two develop a curiously symbiotic relationship, with John ultimately discovering the dark, irrational side of himself he has long denied. While almost coming to believe Richie’s assertion that they are psychic brothers, he makes a decision in the novel’s final scene that lifts him forever above the “moral triviality” of his alter ego. This is a precisely rendered, excruciatingly suspenseful tale of psychological duality.

Are we all a little bit evil? What separates a man like John Felton from a man like Richie Maranville? Those are interesting questions that I hope the film is able to bring out. If anyone has read the original novel, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Source: Scene Magazine