When Nic Cage latches onto something, look out! For years he was kooky for comic books, which ultimately landed his ass on the Hellcycle for Marvel’s Ghost Rider flick. Now he really seems to be into Asian material (and not just his young Korean wife, nuh-HAH!) — he’s expressed interest in the proposed Oldboy remake, National Treasure 2 will reportedly take him to China, and now he’s starring in a remake of The Pang Brothers’ bleak hitman movie Bangkok Dangerous.
And "remake" may be an accurate word — it sounds like the Pangs are basically just keeping the original’s name, locale and character’s occupation. The new story finds the ever-busy Cage as "a cold-blooded hit man who heads to Bangkok to pull off four jobs, and winds up falling in love with a local girl and bonding with his errand boy". The first chaotic movie involved a deaf-mute professional killer (and city resident) seeking revenge for his murdered friend and mentor, with the romance aspect further in the periphery.
But since the Pangs (Danny and Oxide) are redirecting their own movie, it’s their prerogative to make any changes they see fit (as long as they keep some Thai hookers in there), although the new script is credited to Jason Richman, who has only the Schumacher catastrophe Bad Company on his IMDB page. The Pangs horror flick The Eye is also being remade by Tom Cruise’s company (though Renee Zellweger has exited the project), and they recently made their US debut on The Messengers (hey Smilin’ Jack!) for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures.