David Belle Will Reprise His Role From The Original Film
While Paul Walker has had an incredible career despite possessing the charisma of a park bench, he really wasn’t going anywhere until the ‘Fast and Furious‘ franchise picked him back up for the fourth installment in the series. Were it not for the fourth film’s mammoth box office take (soon eclipsed by the monstrous performance of the fifth film), Walker was well on his way to fronting a sea of direct-to-DVD efforts, and not performing death-defying car stunts for action fans worldwide. Being the co-lead for a movie that makes $626 million worldwide does seem to open doors that previously seemed closed, as “Fast Five” proves.
Due to the success of those last two ‘Furious’ entries, Walker’s now in talks to star in “Brick Mansions,” an American remake of the hit French actioner “District B-13.” The plot, mirroring the original film, finds Walker as an undercover detective who tries to locate a nuke stolen by drug dealers and now hidden in a labyrinthine lower class ghetto. Series creator Luc Besson, who oversaw both “District B-13” and “District 13: Ultimatum,” has co-written the script with “Taken” and “The Fifth Element” collaborator Robert Mark Kamen. A director is expected to be selected amongst Besson’s EuropaCorp associates, so expect a smaller name, possibly James Mather and Stephen St. Leger of upcoming Besson project “Lockout.”
The original film and its sequel were notable for bringing mainstream attention to Parkour, which has since surfaced in a number of Hollywood movies, and the two leads were heavy duty Parkour practitioners. While it would be folly to expect Walker to start jumping from building to building, his co-star will be David Belle, reprising his role from the first film as a streetwise hood who knows the area better than anyone. Being that Belle is credited as actually INVENTING Parkour, you can be sure his skills will be showcased, especially since Deadline reports that several actors sought the role, but Besson’s conditions were that it be Belle or no one. Though we’d love to see those homemade audition tapes of American actors attempting to do Parkour.