You know, this was going to be a snarkier post but then we dug up this set photo of Jason Statham wearing a goddamn cowboy hat, and "Parker" is now our most anticipated movie of 2013. Jason Statham has done a lot things in his career — most of them variations on the same theme — but we have never seen him wear a ten gallon hat, and dude pulls it off. If the rest of his warddrobe for "Parker" is this outlandish, we simply can't wait.
Originally slated to arrive on October 12th, FilmDistrict has moved the movie back to January 25, 2013, which might seem like a retreat, but considering R-rated genre fare like "Contraband" and "The Grey" both opened around the same frame this year at number one, it seems like the indie house is hoping to duplicate that success. And there is some pedigree behind this one, with "Ray" director Taylor Hackford at the helm of a thriller based on the character created by Donald E. Westlake — already portrayed on screen by Mel Gibson in “Payback” and Lee Marvin in “Point Blank” (those are some big hats shoes to fill, Statham). And rather than being based on any single book, this Parker will be lifted and plopped into a fresh adventure in a script by John J. McLaughlin, who co-wrote “Black Swan.”
Add to that a supporting cast that includes Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Michael Chiklis and Wendell Pierce, and this is either going to be a great little B-movie or completely bonkers. We kind of hope it's both. At the very least it can't be any worse than "Transporter 2," which we just watched again on TV recently — it was even dumber than we remembered. [BoxOfficeMojo]