In development for some time, the modernized, english-language remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1970 crime thriller The Red Circle (Le cercle rouge) appears to have found a new director. Producer Arthur Sarkissian tells CraveOnline that The Wolverine‘s James Mangold is planning to shoot the project next summer in Hong Kong and Macau.
“James to me is a guy’s director,” says Sarkissian. “He’s from the world of the old school of movies. ‘The Getaway’, ‘The Wild Bunch’. I see him in that world. He loves movies. ‘3:10 to Yuma’, to me, was one of the best remakes ever. It’s very difficult to top an original and I think he did that absolutely beautifully because I don’t think the Glen Ford/Delmer Daves version worked as well as the one he did.”
The original film starred Alain Delon as Corey, an ex-con who winds up getting pulled back into the world of crime, teaming with a hitman for a major heist.
“It’s all about character,” Sarkissian continues about his updated version. “I think we have a really great story. I think that world of Macau and Hong Kong is wonderful. I don’t think we’re going to have that stylized bent guns and all of that. I don’t want to make a stylistic movie. The style will be there. I just want to tell a good story. I just want to tell a very good gangster story.”
As for who could top Delon’s performance, Sarkissian has a few ideas.
“I have a wish list,” he says. “I swear it’s so fantastic, but Christian Bale, Russell Crowe. I’ve got them all in my head. I hope to God one of them [accepts.] Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Tom Hardy. They could all be fantastic either as the hitman or the Corey character.”
Mangold’s The Wolverine is expected to begin production immediately for a July 26, 2013 release.
(Photo Credit: Apega / WENN)
