Fresh off his feel-good epic abortion documentary, Lake of Fire*, Tony Kaye is seating himself in the director’s chair for Blackwater Transit, a crime film starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson that will shoot in New Orleans.
You might remember Kaye as the director of American History X, which he disowned after Ed Norton took over in the editing room. Kaye is known as being quite talented in commercials and videos, but American History X is his only feature so far (IMDB lists a 2002 film, Snowblind, but that’s all the info they have, and I can’t find much else and I have grown weary of Googling). He’s been attached to a couple of movies in recent years, including one called Reaper that seems to have ended up in the hands of the guy who “directed” Deuces Wild, and one called Paranoia that was going to film in New Orleans, like Blackwater.
The movie, based on a novel by Carsten Stroud, is about illegal firearm smuggling and cops and lawyers and some other stuff. Vin Diesel was once attached, and the movie was going to shoot in Chicago – it’s changed a director, a lead, and a location…. It’s a miracle this movie is ever happening. And since Tony Kaye is known to be very difficult, let’s not hold our breaths even now.
*Which I have not seen, but everyone who has caught it so far – it played Toronto – says that it is amazing.