I don’t know if Shane Black (above right) sleeps these days. Speaking of not sleeping, Fight Club writer Jim Uhls will be working on a new script for Black to direct, The Destroyer, based on the Remo Williams book series. This after it was reported that Black would be directing and writing a treatment for a Predator sequel back in June, and had cast Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in a noir drama in July.
From Deadline:
Sony Pictures has set Iron Man 3 helmer Shane Black to direct The Destroyer, Fight Club scribe Jim Uhls’ scripted adaptation of the adventure book series by Warren Murphy that will give framed New Jersey cop Remo Williams another shot at a movie franchise. Uhls wrote the script with James Mullaney, who co-authored books in the series and became the sole writer of The Destroyer series until it ended in 2008.
Williams was a Newark cop until he was framed, sentenced to death, then resurrected following a botched execution. He is given a second lease on life serving in the enforcement arm of the clandestine U.S. government agency CURE. Williams teams with the Asian assassin Chiun and together they clean up and eliminate those who oppose America’s interests. The book combined old-school suspense and Eastern mysticism, and slick, violent capers.
I never saw the 1985 film incarnation of Remo Williams, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, starring Fred Ward, but it definitely looks like it could’ve come from the Monster Squad era of Shane Black projects:
You think they’ll keep the white-guy-in-Asian-face conceit?
Anyway, I don’t see how Shane Black could possibly be doing this, the Predator sequel, AND the noir movie with Baby Goose and Russell Crowe. And if he was going to drop out of any of them… let’s be honest, I’d just as soon it’d be this one. That said, if Shane Black is doing a buddy comedy, I’m going to be there. I just hope he shows up to the set in whatever outfit this is:
Pack it in, everyone, Shane Black just won normcore.