Having been Fast and Furious long enough, Paul Walker is moving on to other projects and is in talks to play the male lead in upcoming thriller Protection. Simon West (Con Air) is also in the running to helm the pic.
The film tells the story of a 21-year old daughter of a Mexican judge who is targeted by the mob after she sees them kill her father and other family members. She pairs up with Walker’s character and must stay on the run on both sides of the border.
West’s involvement in the film depends on whether the remake of The Mechanic comes through.
Production Weekly reports that Simon West (Tomb Raider) is in talks to direct a reboot of the 1972 Charles Bronson action flick The Mechanic.
Jason Statham is stated to be taking on the lead role in the Shane Salerno-scripted film. It will reimagine the property as a spy thriller in a post-9/11 world.
The ’72 film saw Bronson playing an aging hitman who befriends a young man who wants to be a professional killer.
Biopic Dali directed by Simon West is ready to sign on Antonio Banderas to play Salvador Dali. Banderas is talking final negotiations, which indicate a done deal in Variety
Variety reports that West will blend music with CGI sequences in an effort to capture the inventiveness and color of the painter. A similar technique was used in the 2002 movie biopic Frida about surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kalho.
Dali will explore how Dali conquered America and the world with sex, sin and surrealism only to succumb later to worldwide scandal and misfortune.
Interestingly two other Dali biopics are in the development: Al Pacino is attached to play the artist in Dali & I: The Surreal Story; and Twilight’s Robert Pattinson stars as Dali in the upcoming Little Ashes, which chronicles the young life and loves of the painter as well as filmmaker Luis Bunuel and writer Federico Garcia Lorca.
West added that the project will focus not only on Dali’s outrageous lifestyle but his lifelong love affair with Gala, his wife, muse and manipulative manager.
Filming is set to start in the first quarter of 2009 in Spain and England.
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