Is there any movie out there that defines an entire genre in the way Death Wish does? Even if you never saw any of the five films starring Charles Bronson, you know exactly what they're about and their influence on a number of similar movies over nearly forty years.MGM has been wanting to make a remake of Death Wish for years, at one point with Sylvester Stallone possibly in the starring role. Now it looks like it could finally happening, and they've set the red hot Joe Carnahan to write and direct it.
Carnahan is on a roll this month after his Liam Neeson-starring thriller, The Grey, opened the box office at #1. He'll reboot the classic 1974 film, based on the novel by Brian Garfield, about a man who turns into a violent vigilante after his daughter is raped and wife murdered by a bunch of random thugs. Bronson epitomized the character of Paul Kersey through the course of four increasingly awful sequels.Thankfully they stopped pooping them out in 1994.
This seems like something that would be right up Carnahan's alley. The A-Team wasn't exactly a hit, but I enjoyed it, and he got the feel of the TV series exactly right. One has to think Liam Neeson will be the first person on his speed dial to be the star once casting gets underway. [LA Times]
