Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey is never treated as a hero – he’s a broken, depressed shell of a man who had his world taken right out from under him and seeks to find balance through violence. Alas, he skipped out, and passed the torch onto Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala), who is now being replaced by Big Bad Wolves directors Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado. After Joe Carnahan parted ways with the project, the script was later worked on by Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) and Graham Yost (Justified).
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The Charles Bronson-led 1974 thriller Death Wish, the Taken of its day, essentially spawned the “civilian on a rampage of revenge” action sub-genre. Willis and the Keshales-Papushado brain trust may need to come up with a few new tricks if they want to make all their wildest Death Wishes come true. The popular series included five films released between 1974 and 1994: Death Wish (1974), Death Wish II (1982), Death Wish 3 (1985), Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), and Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994).
The new version-which Paramount has had in development hell for years, including when The Grey’s Joe Carnahan was briefly attached to direct-is expected to closely follow the 1972 book by Garfield.
Bruce Willis is set to star in the pic and production is reported to start in the Summer.
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The Israeli directing team helmed the 2013 black comedy “Big Bad Wolves”, which was an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival.
