Clifton Collins Jr. & Wendell Pierce Also Join
For Michael Chiklis, a leap to the big screen has been been curiously out of the reach. The star of “The Commish” and more recently “The Shield” memorably played The Thing in the “Fantastic Four” films but otherwise, has not made much of an impression in feature films, but it looks like he’s going to get his shot.
Deadline reports that Chiklis is signed up to play the baddie in Taylor Hackford‘s “Parker” starring Jason Statham. The thriller is based on the character created by Donald E. Westlake—portrayed on screen already by Mel Gibson in “Payback” and Lee Marvin in “Point Blank”—and rather than being based on any single book, the character will be lifted and plopped into a fresh adventure in a script by John J. McLaughlin, who co-wrote “Black Swan.” Jennifer Lopez is eyeing the female lead and Clifton Collins Jr. (“Star Trek,” “Brothers“) and Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” “Treme“) have also come aboard.
“Parker” is set to get in front of cameras August which likely means it’ll hit theaters in 2012. And while we’ll write this off as yet another boilerplate Statham until we see evidence to the contrary, the promise of butting bald heads with Chiklis actually sounds pretty awesome.