Screen Rant » kane and lynch

Bruce Willis Confirmed For ‘Kane & Lynch’

Ross Miller — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:55:35 +0000

Back in the summer of 2008 Screen Rant reported on the fact that John McClane himself, Bruce Willis had attached himself to star in the still up and coming video game adaptation, Kane & Lynch. In case you’re not familiar with it, the game is about a former mercenary (Kane) and a psychopath (Lynch) forced to “work” together. Fast forward (or “flash forward,” to give a hat tip to ABC’s great new TV show) more than a year and we have solid confirmation of Willis’ casting from the producers of Kane & Lynch themselves.

Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter recently spoke to the guys over at Collider while at the 2009 Scream Awards where, amongst other video game adaptations, they spoke a little about Kane & Lynch. On top of letting us know about a tentative production start date of early 2010 (Spring or early Summer at the latest), they also confirmed Willis’ casting with a smooth and simple, “Bruce Willis is Kane.” They wouldn’t reveal who they have lined up as Lynch, but they said they’re announcing that pretty soon.

Game Daily also got a chance to speak to Askarieh, where he talked a little bit more about Kane & Lynch, including how Willis got interested in his now-confirmed role. He said the script has been very well received around town, and when Willis read it, he called it one of the best action scripts he’s ever read (that’s coming from the star of the Die Hard franchise!) and being the actor he is, Willis has pretty much read every action script of the last two decades (give or take a few ).

As far as a director goes, the previously reported Simon Crane is still at the helm, making his feature-film directing debut. His credits as a Second Unit Director and a Stunt Coordinator include Tomb Raider, Quantum of Solace, Hancock and Willis’ recent sci-fi film, Surrogates. Even though the dubious combination of a first-time director and video game adaptation doesn’t exactly inspire confidence from the outset, I’m willing to give the film a chance.

Who knows – maybe Kane & Lynch will be the film that breaks the video game adaptation curse, and will lay the way for quality ones to come. Willis being one of the two leads is certainly a HUGE positive, even if the role won’t be that much of a stretch for him. Until shooting gets underway and we start to see some actual footage from the film, I’m going to reserve strong judgment.

What do you think of Willis being confirmed for the role of Kane in the Kane & Lynch movie? Have you played the game, and if so do you think it would make a good movie? Who do you have in mind for the role of Lynch?

For more information on the Kane & Lynch adaptation, as well as the other video game adaptations Askarieh and Alter have in the pipeline – including Hitman 2 - you can head over to Collider and Game Daily.

As stated, Kane & Lynch is hoped to start shooting in early 2010, but no release date has been set as of yet.

Sources: Collider, GameDaily (thanks to /Film)

Bruce Willis Is Still A Man Of Action

Niall Browne — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:38:51 +0000

Bruce Willis is an iconic man of action to males (and females) of a certain age. John McClane from the Die Hard films is probably his trademark role (although some might say it’s David Addison from TV’s Moonlighting) and throughout the last twenty years he has been synonymous with the action genre. That isn’t about to change anytime soon.

Willis has been in discussions to star in no less than three new action films – three new editions to a pending slate that already includes A Couple of Dicks (set to be directed by Kevin Smith) and Kane and Lynch.

The three latest films are serial killer flick Inventory, mobster movie Scarpa and CIA pic Red .

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“In Inventory, Willis, who is in negotiations for the role, would play a detective on the trail of a murderer.

In Red, Willis would portray a former black-ops agent who has gone into retirement but is forced back into action when a high-tech assassin comes a-callin’ to threaten him and his girlfriend (The film is based on a WildStorm/DC Comic).

Willis has also been weighing an offer from Morgan Creek to play the title character in Scarpa, a mob biopic directed by Tears of the Sun helmer Antoine Fuqua about Greg Scarpa, an FBI informant who worked deeply undercover in New York’s Columbo family, though the odds are growing that Willis won’t do that pic.”

With regards to Red it’s believed that Willis’ 16 Blocks director Richard Donner will helm the film. Donner is still sprightly and knows how to knock an action sequence together even though he’s now 79 years old.

Willis has often tried to distance himself from the action genre – even though it has given him most of his biggest successes (The Sixth Sense being the biggest exception). He spent many years refusing to return to the Die Hard series before being lured back for 2007’s rather good Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0). He spent a large part of the 90’s and early 00’s making a variety of films in multiple genres, from comedies (The Whole Nine Yards) to drama (Nobody’s Fool opposite the late Paul Newman).

However, now at the ripe old age of 54, Bruce appears to be at ease with his tough guy image and seems willing to stand and kick ass next to the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford.

Bruce Willis will next be seen in Jonathan Mostow’s comic book adaptation The Surrogates which opens in September.

More on Inventory, Scarpa and Red as we get it.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: June 8(ish) 2008

Niall Browne — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:11:30 +0000

Hey Guys welome to another Weekend Movie Wrap Up. I know, I know -I’m late, but it’s because of the new site and my time difference here in the UK. However, it’s better late than never!

This week in our video game driven segment we look at :

Leonardo DiCaprio running Atari, who will be joing Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia, Bruce Willis signs up for Kane and Lynch, Keira Knightley is the new Audrey Hepburn and Merlin decides to recapture that old magic in Roundtable.

1. Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to Atari. The film follows the life of Nolan Bushnell – the creator of Atari. Paramount purchased the script in the hope that DiCaprio will star in the film and produce it through his Appian Way production Company.

Is it just me or does this sound like it could be boring?

Source: Variety

2. Sir Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina have signed on to Prince of Persia : The Sands of Time film starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

The Jerry Bruckheimer produced film starts shooting next month in Morocco.

An interesting fact – I once ran over Sir Ben Kingsley’s foot with a luggage trolley whilst running for the Euro-star!

3. Pop Culture lover Bruce Willis has attached himself to Kane and Lynch. The film based on the video game of the same name follows two hit-men, named… er Kane and Lynch trying to find a microchip. Simon Crane is attached to direct the project. Crane is currently working as stunt coordinator on Willis’ The Surrogates.

See what happens when you get to know somebody!

Source: Variety

4. Keira Knightley appears to be stepping into Audrey Hepburn’s shoes for a remake of My Fair Lady. Sony pictures is eyeing the remake of the seminal musical that co-starred Rex Harrison.

Knightley would play Eliza Dolittle the cockney flower girl who is transformed into a “proper lady” by Professor Huggins.

Yeah – I’m not too excited about this either, but it’s interesting to note that Knightley rarely plays contemporary characters.

Source: Variety

5. It looks like the legendary Merlin will be returning to the big screen in an action-comedy. Brian K. Vaughn has penned a script for Roundtable, which follows Merlin into the present day in order to fight an ancient evil. Merlin must gather the best Knights that he can muster, who turn out to be a rag-tag bunch of geeks, nerds and athletes.

There was a bidding war for this. Seriously.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for another week.

See you at the movies!