Wesley Snipes. Jean-Claude Van Damme. Dolph Lundgren. Men whose names once commanded space above the title on posters for theatrical releases… men who are now swiftly clogging shelves with direct-to-video fare.
Unfortunately this is the same career trajectory that Christian Slater now faces, especially after Alone in the Dark. From puckish to punchline. From being pursued for roles to making Pursued for rent money. Hard Rain. Hard Cash. Hard times.
Slater will remain virtually unseen for his next film, the in-name follow-up to Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man. The moderately budgeted direct-to-DVD sequel retains only peripheral ties to the Kevin Bacon original, namely the experiment that results in transparent humans with severe psychological issues. This time around there’s a pair of Hollow Men running around, with Slater’s crazed government assassin throwing invisible knuckle sandwiches at hero cop Peter Facinelli (Fastlane), with cutie scientist Laura Regan (They) caught in the middle.
According to Fango, the flick will not only feature exhilarating fight scenes (lots of chairs and random bludgeoning instruments hovering in midair, I’d imagine), but will find the two opposed invisible men mutating and becoming increasingly disfigured over the course of the film, making comparisons to Cronenberg’s The Fly. Hell, this already sounds more entertaining than the first one.
The Sony Screen Gems flick joins their previously announced straight-to-shelf sequels to I Know What You Did Last Summer and Road House (which Devin just discussed HERE), and is being directed by Claudio Fah, who proved he could stretch a budget to impressive lengths (and give Clayton Rohner work) with the fun flick Coronado. The script comes from Joel Soisson, who adds yet another “franchise” to a filmography that includes endless entries in the Prophecy, Hellraiser and Dracula series.