Earlier today, we reported that Wayne Kramer had left the director’s chair for Sylvester Stallone‘s Headshot. Now, Deadline reports that the legendary action director Walter Hill is in talks to helm the picture.
As previously reported, Kramer, (The Cooler, Running Scared), reportedly left the project over creative disagreements with Stallone. The true degree of volatility between the two is unknown, though people close to the production have denied claims that things got heated toward the end. Headshot, scripted by Allesandro Camon, is based on a graphic novel by Alexis Nolent and follows a cop and a hit man who join forces against a common enemy.
Stallone has now elaborated on Kramer’s exit from the project:
“Initially, Mr. Kramer was hired to direct a dark comedy; however his vision was much darker and exceptionally more violent than how the project was originally conceived. It was decided that it would be better for everyone to move on and consequently Mr. Kramer was dismissed by producers earlier this week. There were no volatile clashes, it was simply a professional parting of the ways.”
As any cinephile can tell you, Walter Hill is responsible for some damn fine pieces of popcorn-flick entertainment – he wrote Sam Peckinpah‘s The Getaway, co-wrote James Cameron‘s Aliens, directed The Warriors and 48 Hours and was one of the driving forces of the indisputably classic HBO series Deadwood. His last few movies have been less-then-memorable: Undisputed, Supernova, Last Man Standing, anyone? Here’s Stallone on the possibility of Hill’s involvement:
“I completely respect Walter’s incredible body of work and hopefully this legendary director will become attached to the project.”
If the stars align for a Hill-Stallone collaboration with this premise, this could conceivably be a major career re-birth for both of them. The notion that Kramer’s vision of the project was “exceptionally more violent” is a little confusing, given that in Stallone’s latest Rambo installment, he annihilated the entire Burmese army by himself. It might be logical for them to play it safe, but I’d like to see them go balls-out…only with a plot this time. Either way, the project is slated to start production before this summer.
In the meantime Stallone will be in The Expendables 2, coming August 2012.
Do you think Stallone and Hill can make this work? Do you care at all?