As if there wasn’t enough machismo on the set of “The Killer Elite,” headliners Jason Statham and Clive Owen just got some competition in the ass-kicking business. Robert DeNiro is joining the cast of the adaptation of the Ranulph Fiennes novel (originally titled “The Feathermen” — kinky) as Hunter, the mentor and friend to Statham’s character. It was thirteen years ago that DeNiro was roughing up guys in “Ronin,” so we guess the “action movie mentor” stage was inevitable, but we’re still so bummed to see the guy become a graybeard. We guess you can’t do much better as far as mentors go, so it sounds like a win for all involved anyway.
“The Killer Elite,” which has no relation to the Sam Peckinpah film of the same name, concerns a former Navy SEAL who comes out of retirement to save a friend who’s In. Too. Deep. In addition to this very nice trio headlining the picture, the cast also includes TV stars Dominic Purcell (“Prison Break,” purple-pants Dracula of “Blade: Trinity”) and Yvonne Strahovski (“Chuck”). The film marks the directorial debut for Gary McKendry, and for his sake, we hope this works out better than DeNiro’s last action-y endeavor, when he walked off the set of Martin Campbell’s “Edge of Darkness.” We hear craft services is to blame.
–Written by Gabe Toro