Let's face it, Gavin O'Connor got screwed royal at the box office with his MMA grappler, Warrior. Audiences just didn't latch on to it, mostly due to piss poor marketing, and what should've been a possible Oscar contender for the director will likely be remembered for being a monumental dud. Sad. But that hasn't prevented him backing away from action movies in the least, as his next film looks to be a high octane thriller called The Samurai.
Warner Brothers scooped up the spec script by O'Connor and Michael J. Wilson. Deadline describes the story as being about "a rogue assassin named Townes Joyce, who breaks out of a Texas jail that puts him on the run from an international manhunt. Along the way, he gets involved with a woman and her child, and they go along for a ride that spans Costa Rica, Colombia, Paris and back to the U.S." I'm digging it already.
O'Connor is making some serious moves of late, most of them on the Warner Brothers lot where he's got a couple of projects breweing. But one that has me intrigued is a stageplay version of classic 1961 film, The Hustler, which starred Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. Working alongside his Warrior co-writer Anthony Tambackis, O'Connor has a commitment from Renee Zellwegger for a role, and hopes for a Broadway debut. Any chance we can see it here? Maybe on a big screen simulcast?
