Everyone’s favorite New Zealander-turned-Bond director-turned-Bond fan heartbreaker, Martin Campbell, has nabbed his next gig. After finishing out the upcoming thriller Unstoppable, Campbell will be taking the reigns of Paramount’s 36, a remake based on the 2004 French crime film 36 Quai Des Orfevres (the assumed address of the French Police’s Criminal Division).
I missed the original version en Francais, but synopsis says its about a pair of criminal investigators chasing down some thieves with a penchant for knocking over armored cars. Thing is, the guy who catches the thieves gets the promotion. Kind of like a gun-filled crime version of The Apprentice, except without Trump, the fruit of his withered loins, and a built-in ratings slip.
36 had originally been tagged as a project to star Robert DeNiro (who is producing), but will now be tagged for a rewrite by the great novelist (and sometimes screenwriter) Richard Price, giving the two detectives a dip in the fountain of youth to a more "accesable" age of 30 something. Which is a good thing, because I don’t know about you, but now that I can relate to some peers, I’m definitely going to see it*.
If you’ve read Price’s stuff, you know this is a nice turn of events and, with Martin Campbell’s re-explosion with the spiffy Casino Royale (we’ll see, Unstoppable), coupled with having Vertical Limit under his belt (you knew that was coming), 36 might be a remake that has potential.
* In fairness, this probably has more to do with dramatic tension created between two battling career guys than trying to open 36 up for a younger audience. I hope.