There have been plenty of remakes of Death Wish over the years, with Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness being a recent example, but so far none have had the balls to take the franchise’s name and outright remake it since the sequels dried up in the 90s. Sylvetser Stallone tried some years ago, but nobody has yet been able to step up to to ole Charlie Bronson’s plate. That may change as ass-tearing extraordinaire Joe Carnahan was apparently set to take on the franchise already at the end of last week, but now a weekend later he’s got the number one movie in the country. Nothing gives you bigger balls in the studio’s eyes than winning the weekend, so I would imagine the project’s all the way his if he wants it.
So far there’s been no inclusion of Liam Neeson’s name in the reports, but it’s hard not to leap to that idea right away. Liam is of course badass number one these days largely due to his own Death Wish lite action film Taken, and having shown a few wolves what for in The Grey with Carnahan and earning a $20m opening weekend in the process, it’s easy to jump to that conclusion. That said, it’s just as or more likely that Carnahan will go with someone else who hasn’t run the latent-badass course as many times, and whose transition into a super-killer is more of dramatic shock. Frankly, I’d prefer to see him do exactly that.
I think this is a good time for some good ole internet fantasy casting, so let that loose in the comments with who you’d like to see take out bad guys with a police revolver and a smoldering righteous fury….
My pick?
Tyler Perry. With the Bronson hair.
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Wasn’t “Edge of Darkness” a remake of a tv miniseries of the same name, also directed by Martin Campbell? Or perhaps what you’re getting at is that the formula is the same as “Death Wish”?
But I’ll follow up with an actual reply: I’d be interested in seeing John Hawkes cast here. What he needs is a more heroic, protagonist role… and given his scrawny, strung out physicality, he would be more surprising than someone like Liam Neeson. Although really, I would fancast Liam Neeson in *anything*.
I agree, give it to someone unsuspecting, I want to watch a complete transformation. I say give it to Richard Schiff. He’s type cast into the intellectual type role. However, I feel as if he can pull off the devoted family man who loses everything role and whose emotions drive him to take the law into his own hands. I also think that Richard Jenkins would be good for this. J.K. Simmons may also be good. Only problem is, he played a complete psycho murder in OZ.
BTW, with my comments, I am advocating they stick with an older actor for this movie. Bronson was 53 when they made the first one. Schiff is 55, Jenkins is 64, Simmons is 57.
My vote goes to Bryan Cranston.
He may already be playing out a similar character conversion on “Breaking Bad”, but Lord he does it so well.
If we’re aiming for “left-field” casting, how about Adam Sandler? Imagine all that primal man-child rage displayed in HAPPY GILMORE and ANGER MANAGEMENT channelled into a heavy-duty revenge thriller.
(But this time, could you PLEASE have Kersey kill the punks who are actually responsible for attacking his family? That weird little loose end from the original movies always creeped me out…)
Laurence Fishburne.
Jodie Foster.
I meant Ben Foster.
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