Jaume-Collet Serra Latest To Direct Le Cercle Rouge Remake

Apparently director Jaume-Collet Serra is one hell of a hot commodity in the current world of Hollywood.

After making a splash with the relatively fun and absurdly engaging thriller Orphan, the director not only has the recently released Unknown to his credit, but will also have the upcoming Dracula film Harker, and possibly G.I. Joe 2 to his name.

Well, according to Deadline, not only has he found yet another film, but one that may have a lot of Criterion fans a bit up in arms.

First, a bit of history.   2004 saw the announcement that Paramount was working with director John Woo and writer Jeff Pinker on a new adaptation of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge.   Woo’s project fell apart, seeing Johnnie To take over, even getting a cast including Liam Neeson, Chow Yun-Fat, Orlando Bloom, Tim Roth and yes, Alain Delon, star of the first film.

That film was penned by Steve Knight, and ended up landing on the 2009 Brit List, of best unproduced British scripts.   To left, and prior to now, John Hillcoat was vying for the film.

Now however, Serra is currently finalizing a deal that would see him helm the project, which will follow a thief who, with the help of a shooter, tries for on major jewel job.

Personally, while I’m inherently against Melville being remade, I actually kind of like this idea.   Serra is not the best filmmaker in the world, but he does have a singular style, and one that could maybe make this film fresh.   I’m not saying that it needs the update, but if it has to be remade, there are worse hands that it could be placed it.   Sure, that may be damning it with faint praise, but hey, this may actually not be the worst film in the world.

What do you think?

Source: Deadline