Bruce Willis is in talks to join Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in the heist film Set Up, with Paul Walker also in talks to jump on board. Mike Gunther, one of the industry’s leading stunt coordinators, wrote the script and will direct the project. Variety reports Grindstone Entertainment/Lionsgate will distribute the film, presumably jumping on the sleeper success of Takers and The Town and thinking the market is ripe for more modestly budgeted and like-minded projects. The plot revolves around a diamond heist that (surprise, surprise) turns deadly.
Hayden Panettiere and Nikki Reed (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown) are set to star in the thriller Downers Grove, which takes its name from the Chicago suburb acting as its setting (although it will be shot in Louisiana). Bret Easton Ellis (the American Psycho and Less Than Zero novelist) has adapted a screenplay from the Michael Hornberg novel, with Panettiere playing the lead role of a high-schooler who fears she’s the next victim in the local string of one senior dying a bizarre death before the end of the school year. Now that’s a generic plot for a teen horror film if I’ve ever heard one, which should put it right in the wheelhouse of attached director Nelson McCormick (Prom Night). [The Hollywood Reporter]
After getting shot down a few months back, it now looks like an American Oldboy remake is again picking up steam. Pajiba has tweeted Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend) has readied a script for Mandate Pictures, and the film’s producers are apparently very high on it as they’ll immediately deliver it to Steven Spielberg. Should Spielberg turn it down (Robopocalypse has already been announced as his next project), Matthew Vaughn and Danny Boyle will get next dibs. I’m not sure what a Hollywood Oldboy would even look like, but Boyle seems like the best fit for the general tone of the original. Even still, I’d assume some of the grit and violence would have to be dialed back a bit.
The cast is beginning to come together for New Year’s Eve, director Garry Marshall’s follow-up to Valentine’s Day. Those currently in negotiations include Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ashton Kutcher and Hilary Swank, joining the previously attached Abigail Breslin and Lea Michele. As with Valentine’s Day, the film will feature an ensemble cast in intertwining stories as they navigate their way through romance in New York. Filming is set to begin next month for a December 2011 release date.
