A lot of people forget or simply might not know that when Vince Vaughn became a breakout star as the really sh*tty best friend of Jon Favreau in Swingers, he tried to sustain a career as a more serious actor with roles in forgettable dramas like Return to Paradise, the Psycho remake, and The Cell, among others (I’ve always loved Clay Pigeons, but no one has seen it). It wasn’t until he teamed up with the “Frat Pack” that Vaughn truly found his niche as a supporting comedic character in beloved hits like Old School, Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball and Anchorman.
Now, after a string of mostly-meh romantic comedies and a box office dud in The Watch, Vaughn wants to try his hand at the serious stuff again. But this time, he wants to be an action star.
Looking to assert himself outside the comedy genre, Vince Vaughn has signed on to star in “Triple Time,” an action-thriller movie that Peter Billingsley will direct and Scott Pictures Intl. will shop to foreign buyers at AFM.
Two-hander follows a broke U.S. marshal (Vaughn) tasked with escorting a prisoner accused of an environmental disaster to Washington, D.C. When their transport plane explodes, the unlikely pair must work together to figure out who is behind the conspiracy, which may include one of them. (Via Variety)
If it sounds formulaic, that’s because it is, and it’s also being produced by Vaughn and his Wild West Pictures Show company, which is a factory of paint-by-numbers. For example, Wild West is the company behind the TBS comedy Sullivan & Son, which is about a cast of quirky people who spend all of their time in a bar. And Wild West is also producing the upcoming ABC comedy The Guys, starring Tony Danza in a story about “three longtime friends in the later years of their lives”.
So along those lines, I look forward to soon announcing that Vaughn’s co-star in Triple Time will be Kevin Hart, with the bad guy played by James Woods. Also, your lottery numbers are all 69.