By I’m a sucker for a good detective story. As such, I’m a big fan of Donald Westlake a.k.a. Richard Stark and his series surrounding the criminal known only as Parker. The first Parker novel, The Hunter, has Parker being shot by his wife and accomplice and left for dead, only to survive and seek revenge against the people that wronged him and to get his share of the money back. It’s simple and effective. Taylor Hackford is preparing an adaptation of this novel, titled only as Parker, and British action phenom Jason Statham is in talks to play the titular anti-hero.
The Hunter has been made into a movie several times before, all changing the protagonist’s name at the author’s request. We has Point Blank with Lee Marvin and the more recent Payback with Mel Gibson playing the “Parker” roles. Those are two fairly amazing, multi-faceted action actors. Jason Statham does his thing, and well at that, but it’s all he’s got. Parker may be a relentless force of revenge, but he’s a human being too. I just don’t trust Jason Statham to play anything with an emotional response.
[Via /Film]