Shock Till You Drop noted this morning that the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s short story Dolan’s Cadillac
has switched directors. The first director attached to the project Erik
Canuel has apparently been passed over in order to bring in Jeff
Beesley. Who? Well, he’s not exactly a well known force in genre films,
although he did make a “highly original supernatural thriller” called The Risen, which is about zombies. (Uhm…) He’s also directed a lot of TV and documentaries.
“The
audience is in for a treat,” says executive producer Kevin DeWalt.
“We’ve assembled an incredibly talented cast and a highly skilled crew
and are ready to deliver a quality film that will exceed audience
expectations.” Ellen Wander, executive producer, adds, “The transition
from page to screen will not disappoint. This story is one of
vengeance, Stephen King style.”
We first told you about the cast for this film here,
when it was revealed that Christian Slater will be portraying the role
of Dolan. Dolan- the antagonist, the mob boss, the MacGuffin. Yeah… I
still don’t get it either. In past years while trying to get the
adaptation off the ground Sylvester Stallone was considered, as was
Dennis Hopper and Gabriel Byrne, and really any of those would have been a superior choice.
Slater just doesn’t come off as a realistic mob boss. (Notice how I’m
avoiding all “following in Nicholson’s footsteps” jokes…)
But it also doesn’t help that there really wasn’t much to the story in
the first place. It was a good but simple tale of a man known simply as Robinson who seeks
revenge on the titular mob boss after he had the man’s wife silenced before she could speak in court against him. Robinson transforms himself from a school-teacher into a hard-edged
construction worker to trap one of the hardest possible men to get at. That’s pretty much all there is as far as plot. Can Richard Dooling’s script have added anything to the story? This is
the guy behind Kingdom Hospital, you know.
Wes Bently (the psycho from P2)
is a better choice as the main character Robinson, and while the wife
(played by Emmanuelle Vaugier) doesn’t have a whole lot to do in the
original story besides bounce around and mutter words of encouragement in her husband’s head posthumously, I have
the sneaking suspicion that Robinson will keep see images of his wife (rather than just voice) as he plots his revenge. At least she won’t be hard on the eyes…
The film started shooting earlier this week. Perhaps I’m being overly pessimistic, but when a movie bounces around for over a decade without getting made and then comes together like this… well, it can’t be a good sign.