With Jean-Claude Van Damme sporting that greasy, Jheri curl
mullet, John Woo’s 1993 Hard Target, the Hong Kong action
auteur’s first American film, is admittedly a wee bit cheesy. However, out of
all of his subsequent films, it’s also the most similar to action classics like
Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow,
The Killer, and the others he built his reputation on. And
now it’s getting a sequel.
According to Dutch website NU.NL (via Manly Movie), Roel
Reine is going to direct Hard Target 2. If you hope that Van
Damme will be back as Chance Boudreaux, don’t get your hopes up, but John Woo
is reportedly on board as a producer, though the extent of his involvement
remains to be seen. Maybe Yancy Butler will be back, she’s not doing anything
better than this.
Whoever takes the lead, the plot revolves around rich folks
sport hunting human prey, and this time it moves from New Orleans to the
jungles between Burma and Thailand. Yes, this appears to be yet another
cinematic update of “The Most Dangerous Game,” what did you expect?
While you may not know Reine, he has a long history helming
this type of down and dirty, DTV-style action, especially when it involves
follow-ups to bigger films. The Netherlands-borne director has some originals
under his belt, like Steven Seagal’s Pistol Whipped, but the
bulk of his resume is based on sequels. He directed things like The
Marine 2, Death Race 2 and Death Race:
Inferno, and The Scorpion King 3, among others.
His most recent film was The Man with the Iron Fists 2, with
The Condemned 2 on the way, so Hard Target
2 is right in his wheelhouse. With a solid, workmanlike approach,
don’t expect any directorial pyrotechnics, but he’ll probably deliver exactly
the movie you expect this to be.
Reine says:
“What an honor to work for one of your idols. Hard Target 2 should be an ode to the old films John Woo was in Hong Kong.”
Hard Target 2 is slated to shoot this
October and November in Thailand. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for
more news on this.
No comments:
Post a Comment