While it remains to be seen if Joe Johnston will return to the director's chair for the inevitable sequel to "Captain America: The First Avengers" — which according to Neal McDonough (aka Dum Dum Dugan) may shoot at the end of the year — the helmer is taking a microbudget project that he can knock out fast, should he need to jump back into comic book land.
So what is Johnston doing with his newly established cred that has erased memories of "The Wolfman"? He's going to direct a microbudget thriller of course. Written by Adam Mason and Simon Boyes, and produced by Jason Blum ("Paranormal Activity," "Insidious") the lamely titled "Not Safe For Work" centers on a paralegal who's trapped at the office while a killer is on the warpath to destroy files for another corporation. So yeah, sounds like one of those flimsy, one dimenstional loglines that will be stretched into a 90 minute movie. Why Johnston wants to direct a movie about a psychopath destroying files and perhaps people is beyond us, but if he was looking for something different than his usual more tentpole-oriented gigs, he found it.
Oh, the other reason he's doing this? Johnston has a back-end deal so if the movie is a blockbuster, he'll get a nice healthy reward which is probably a nice change from the paltry dollars Marvel hands out to their talent. No word on when this might lens, but these microbudget movies — this one is slated to cost $2.5 million — tend to move fast. [THR]
