Oh, HELL yes.
Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s pulpy action hero The Destroyer (aka Remo Williams) will reportedly make a long-awaited return to the silver screen – so sayeth Aint It Cool News. The first Destroyer film, 1985′s Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (directed by Goldfinger helmer Guy Hamilton), was savaged by critics and filmgoers alike – undeservedly, in my opinion.
The Destroyer novels feature cop-turned-martial-arts-badass Remo Williams and his Korean mentor Chiun, master of the fictional martial art Sinanju as they take on a horde of nutty supervillains. The new flick will undoubtedly be Fred Ward-less, but I’m enthused to see what will emerge.
“The Dark Knight” producer Charles Roven and “Transporter” producer Steve Chasman are teaming up to produce “The Destroyer,” a franchise vehicle that brings back ’80s action hero Remo Williams. The pair have set up the project at Columbia.
Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, who are penning the action epic “War of Gods” for Relativity, are on board to write the screenplay.
Now…if someone would get off their ass and make a decent Mack Bolan movie, my inner 14-year-old would be eternally grateful.
As someone once said of me, I am the master of obscure 80's action flicks, so this news is very exciting. I used to own the original Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins video, bought The Destroyer #1 book… so if anyone's a "huge" fan, it's me.
Of course, there are so many movies in production (The Prisoner remake has supposedly be in the works since '94), it's hard to get too excited. I'll go see it when it comes out, though. Strangely, I liked the movie better than the book – The Destroyer is very James Bond-ish pulp… enjoyable, but not art.
Then again, with James Bond – who needs art?
The funny thing is, there are so many Destroyer books you kinda have to take them on a case-by-case basis. Some are great, some are not so great. As for the original flick – again, I think what made it work was Fred Ward. He played Remo as a seasoned individual – my fear is that they'll cast a 20-something who brings nothing to the role. This isn't Shakespeare, as you point out, but it would be a shame to not do the character justice.
I just hop they don't make a ridiculous CGI spectacle of it (or have the obligatory casting of Sam Worthington as Remo) and keep it to its pulpy roots.
The real question is, who should play Chiun?
Who should play Chiun? Chiun should be played by someone off-screen.