Time to pop open a can of smashed assholes. David Twohy’s next movie is a go!
Looking over David Twohy’s oeuvre, I see nothing but a bunch of movies I like: Pitch Black, The Arrival, Below and The Chronicles of Riddick. I wouldn’t categorize any of these as classics, but they are thoroughly entertaining B movies, and we just don’t get enough of those anymore (speaking of which, someone needs to spring George Armitage from Director Jail). I mean, can you imagine something as lean, mean and impeccably crafted as The Narrow Margin (1952) getting made nowadays? Shit, forget pedigree. I’d be happy to get five movies as great as The Narrow Margin every year (i.e. I wish every year could be 2007).
Twohy hasn’t delivered anything that brilliant just yet, but he’s got the requisite unpretentiousness to get there. That said, I’d be fine with another film on the level of Pitch Black, so it’s an encouraging sign that his latest project, A Perfect Getaway, sounds utterly uncomplicated. The Variety summary: "Story centers on a newlywed couple who encounter two strange hikers." Okay. That could go anywhere. And that’s what’s wonderful about a good B movie: they’re all about working clever variations on familiar premises.
I’m also encouraged by Twohy’s casting of Timothy Olyphant as his leading man (I think I used the same logic to get excited about Hitman, but we’ll forget that ever happened). Would I rather see Olyphant going back to work on Deadwood? Sure. But that’s all gone now.
Relativity Media is producing A Perfect Getaway. MGM will distribute. Principal photography will start March 17 in Puerto Rico.