It was back in April when we told you that Jason Statham would be playing the one-named thief “Parker.” While filming will begin in August, FilmDistrict has wasted little time in acquiring its distribution rights. The film, which takes its title for Statham’s character, is a new thriller from Taylor Hackford who has dabbled in thrillers (Against All Odds), horror (Dolores Claiborne) and even helmed the Oscar-winning Ray.
John J. McLaughlin, who previously scripted Black Swan, will pen this adaptation of the Donald E. Westlake novel series (written under the pseudonym Richard Stark). Jason Statham will play a character that Mel Gibson played in Brian Helgeland’s Payback (hopefully less goofy) and Lee Marvin played in “Point Blank”.
For Statham, it will be another is a series of franchise starters. Having busted out a pair of Crank movies and three Transporter movies, Parker could be that film that is both embraced by critics and fans.
His character, Parker, is a thief, but one who follows a strict moral code he’ll kill to uphold.
FilmDistrict, having already scored a pair of hits with Soul Surfer and Insidious already this year looks to continue the streak with the September 16th release of Drive, based on the James Sallis novel and starring Ryan Gosling, and with Rian Johnson’s Looper, a sci-fi film starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Its release was thought to have been this year, but will instead be released next September.
