Looks like our intelligence was on the money.
In July we reported that F. Gary Gray had bowed out of directing the gestating video game adaptation “Kane & Lynch” starring Jamie Foxx and Bruce Willis and that French filmmaker Patrick Alessandrin (“District 13: Ultimatum”) was being sought for the gig.
Turns out this is all true and now Alessandrin — who was scheduled to start shooting the film next month — has also bailed on the director’s chair according to the L.A. Times.
It’s back to the drawing board and the film’s producers who are now evidently going back to Gray and “Running Scared” director Wayne Kramer — both of them had been in contention to helm at one point — once again trying to entice them to to take the job. The picture is being financed by Millennium, so producers are also talking to Antoine Fuqua, who collaborated with the studio on the crime drama “Brooklyn’s Finest.”
So the revolving door of filmmakers now includes: Gray, Kramer and second-unit and stunt director Simon Crane, who were all once circling the project (and some are now obviously back in the mix).
Regardless of who Millennium/Lionsgate (who is distributing) ultimately finds to take the director’s chair, the schedule for shooting is now off its mark and production won’t resume until the first quarter of 2011 at the earliest. Gray is already attached to the mystery thriller “Hair Of The Dog” which we presume comes first, but anything’s possible in Hollywood.
Another part of the issues revolved around the script. In our original report about Gray departing the project, we noted Kyle Ward’s (“Hitman 2”) original screenplay was being re-written by Skip Woods (“The A-Team,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”). Either way, this video game adaptation has struggled in recent months and Millennium are surely hoping the perception is not one of damaged goods.
