It’s been a couple of months since we told you about Morgan Freeman being added the cast of Red, Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of the Wildstorm/DC Comics miniseries. Now THR (via the Heat Vision Blog) says John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker are in the casting mix.
If the negotiations are a success, they’ll join a cast that already includes Freeman, Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. John C. Reilly would play a retired CIA agent paranoid about being assassination, and Mary-Louise Parker, would see herself as the romantic interest to Bruce Willis’s character. Steering the project is Robert Schwentke, of Flightplan and The Time Traveler’s Wife previously. Sounds good, so far, until you read that the Hoebers, Erich and Jon (who penned the Whiteout adaptation) also wrote this screenplay.
The comic series centered on CIA operative Paul Moses, and his expert talent of assassination as he globetrots from one hotspot to another. When he retires from the agency, Moses wants to put his killing days behind him. Only a new White House administration wants him taken care of, fearing Moses knows too much.
So if terrorists at the Nakatami Tower, at Dulles, around New York, et al., weren’t enough, now Willis has to contend with the feds. Well he’s already tangled with an asteroid, patrolled the streets of Sin City, and discovered that he was “unbreakable,” so the feds should be a walk in the park.
Willis may be getting up there in age, but the wily action star still has a few tricks up his sleeve. I didn’t much care for Surrogates, but the idea of seeing a guy who should be a member of the AARP going against a younger bunch of assassins makes me giddy. Having never read the original comic, the concept still sounds promising for a film.
At least we have Bruce Willis in Kevin Smith’s upcoming comedy A Couple of Dicks and and The Expendables to look forward to in 2010.
