Although Empire isn’t anywhere near supple or limber enough to try it, we have to say that Parkour – the extraordinarily athletic sport/hobby whereby you traverse a landscape and obstacles by leaping and bounding around fearlessly – is damned cool. And cinematic, too.
In the last year alone, we’ve seen Parkour, aka Free Running, hit the big screen in the likes of gritty Luc Besson actioner, District 13, Bond caper Casino Royale, and even Anthony Minghella’s drama, Breaking And Entering. It’s not hard to see why – Parkour experts are unbelievably dynamic, and they save money on stuntmen, presumably.
So far, though, only District 13 has been dedicated to Parkour, with the other two movies featuring the activity in short bursts, but that’s about to change with the news that New Line Cinema is fast-tracking an untitled action film about a New York cop who must infiltrate a gang of free running bank robbers. We don’t know much more about the plot, but we suggest that if you watch Point Break and The Fast And The Furious, both of which share the exact same storyline, you might get a few pointers.
The pitch came from writers T. J. Scott and Kevin Lund, but the screenplay will be written by Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey who, having set up a Vivaldi biopic with Imagine, are the perfect choices to write a balls-to-the-wall action pic.
The renegade cop will be played by up-and-coming actor Channing Tatum, who may have a girl’s name, but has proved, in projects like Coach Carter and A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, that he has acting chops to go with the prerequisite tough guy’s jutting jaw. Let’s hope he’s hitting the gym between now and the start of filming (which may be some time away, if we’re only at script stage), because frankly, he’s going to need to, if he’s going to keep up with Parkour professionals.