John Woo and Terence Chang's Lion Rock Prods. has teamed with France's StudioCanal to develop modern-day remakes of three vintage French thrillers. The pics are "Honor Among Thieves" (1968), starring Charles Bronson and Alain Delon; "Rider on the Rain" (1969), with Bronson and Marlene Jobert; and "The Prone Gunman" (1982), featuring Delon again.
The films could grow to include further remakes from StudioCanal's 3,000-strong movie library according to Variety. Although the idea is to hire up-and-coming helmers on the three titles - budgeted at around $15 million to $20 million apiece - Woo has said he is tempted to direct "Thieves" himself.
"Thieves," which starred Bronson as a doctor and Delon as a criminal who become acquainted in the French Foreign Legion, is the first project to be assigned a writer. Brit scribe David Logan ("Circus") will transpose the action to present-day New York.
"Riders," in which Bronson played a U.S. investigator probing a murder in the South of France, and "The Prone Gunman," about a hired killer trying to get out of the game, will also be placed in contemporary settings. The three projects are being developed simultaneously with the aim of putting the first into production by the end of this year.
Woo's next pic will be Paramount's remake of another Melville classic, 1970's "The Red Circle." After that, he plans to helm Chinese historical epic "The Battle of the Red Cliff," based on true events from 203 A.D. Woo recently left Universal's "Spy Hunter" project over scheduling conflicts.
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