From the very beginning of his career, Pierre Morel has found himself inextricably linked with Luc Besson. He began his career doing cinematography for movies like The Transporter and Unleashed, honing his skill for replicating Besson's signature style of action. That led to his first directing gigs on Besson written/produced efforts, helming one of the best action movies in decades with District B13, before finding mainstream box office success with Taken. Unfortunately he followed that up with From Paris With Love, but 2/3 ain't bad.
Unfortunately, the side effect of mimicking Besson for so long is that he's now the go-to guy for only that specific type of movie, and now he's got yet another one. He'll direct Bastille Day, and before you think it's a French version of New Year's Eve, it's an action movie about a washed up CIA agent who teams up with a young American artist to stop the city from being attacked by....oh does it really matter? The script comes from Andrew Baldwin, currently writing Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling's remake of Logan's Run.
This sounds terrible, and a lot like From Paris With Love, only minus the bald-headed John Travolta and dead-eyed Jonathan Rhys Meyers. [THR]
