With the “Fast & Furious” franchise slowly moving out of the gearhead game, and turning into a series of heist films, the field is wide open for another car based actioner and Rob Cohen, the man behind the movie that started it all — “The Fast And The Furious” — is ready to makes cars explode and stuff all over again.
Deadline reports that Cohen will take the helm of the Cannon Video titled “Bullet Run.” Written by Andrew Hilton, the story centers on “the head of an elite private protection team and his former CIA agent wife [who] infiltrate the closed borders of Iran to abduct a man who killed their daughter. The extraction goes awry and they force to rely on their world-class driving skills and a fleet of high-performance street cars to travel 200 miles through a hail of bullets to keep alive the man they really want dead.” So it’s kind of like “Taken” (in reverse) meets “2 Fast 2 Furious” or whatever.
Sounds pretty one-note, lunk-headed and dumb, which from the director of “Stealth,” xXx,” “Daylight” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” frankly isn’t all that surprising. But this one you’ll have to wait for. Cohen still intends to direct the triller “I, Alex Cross” first. Starring the unlikely cast Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Ed Burns and Jean Reno, Perry will take on the role of the crime busting psychologist Dr. Alex Cross. Fox, has the role of Michael Sullivan aka the Butcher of Sligo, a brutal assassin who kills for kicks and cash. After Cross botches one of his assignments, the Butcher kills Cross’ wife and then it’s game on between the two. Burns will play Tommy Kane, Cross’ partner. Filming is set to begin in August, with a late 2012 or early 2013 release being eyed.