Le Cercle Rouge Remake In The Works, John Hillcoat To Direct?

How about this for news.

When talking about Jean Pierre Melville’s classic film, Le Cercle Rouge, you are treading on sacred ground when it comes to yours truly. Not only is this film generally considered a classic, but as a massive film noir fan that I am, it is easily one of my all-time favorite films.

However, you also have a film that has seen its fair share of attempted remakes. The last one, directed by Johnny To and starring Orlando Bloom, fell apart, and prior to that, John Woo tried to get the film off the ground with Chow Yun-Fat, Liam Neeson, and the original’s star, and all around bad ass, Alain Delon in co-starring roles.

Now, according to Production Weekly (via The Playlist) it looks like it may be getting another shot.

The outlet is reporting that director John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road) has been sent an offer to direct a remake of the legendary film, and will stay rather close to that source, as it will be ‘about an aristocratic thief who is released from prison the same day a murderer has escaped the custody of a police superintendent. The thief ends up robbing his mob boss and enlisting the help of the murderer and an ex-police sharpshooter for a jewel heist. Meanwhile, the mob boss persuades a nightclub owner and a pimp to help him trap the thieves, while the police officer is also looking to apprehend the convict.’

Personally, while I am not one to really get interested in a remake, the idea of seeing John Hillcoat get behind this project is quite intriguing. He’s not the first name to pop to mind when thinking of this film, thus not only making an interesting choice, but one that makes for a possibly amazing film. Media Asia is still involved with the project as both Hong Kong and Macao locations are set in stone, so this could mean many things, particularly that a major Asian thespian will most likely join the cast.

That said, there is one name that needs to get the hell away from a remake of this classic. What in the world is Brett Ratner doing on this project as a producer? While I don’t think he’s the worst filmmaker ever, this is far too important and personal of a film for me to have him get his hands on it. Hopefully he won’t, and hopefully we will see this film get to the screen, with John Hillcoat’s take.

Source: The Playlist