His latest film, Liam Neeson-starring thriller Unknown, just won the US box office battle (if anyone is wondering where the usual totals are, it’s President’s Day holiday weekend in America, so the final tally will appear a day later than usual) and director Jaume Collet-Serra is fielding plenty of offers. He has Dracula story variant **Harker gearing up at Warner Bros. and now he’s making a deal for the remake of Le Cercle Rouge for Working Title.
We’re really not sure The Red Circle needs a remake, though; the original is a classic. Jean-Pierre Melville directed the 1970 film, starring the likes of Alain Delon, Yves Montand and Gian-Maria Volonte, which sees a group of men – an elegant thief, a brutal murderer and a former police sniper – teaming up to pull off a jewel heist. But there are problems for all three, including a driven detective on their tail and a mob boss looking to take one of them down.
But the quality of Melville’s work hasn’t stopped various filmmakers from trying to get a new version out there, and the project has some history. Back in 2004, committed Melville fan John Woo (who has cited the director as a big influence on his work) looked to set up a remake, which churned through development for a while before he left the project. Then in 2008, it pinged the ol’ radar again, this time with Hong Kong helmer Jonnie To taking over and Orlando Bloom offered the lead as the gentleman-thief character. Intriguingly, Chow Yun Fat and Serra’s current leading man, Liam Neeson, were also in negotiation to star, but it stalled once more.
Now Working Title will be hoping that Serra actually going to get **Eastern Promises **writer Steven Knight’s script on screen at last. But the company will have to wait as the director is still trying to decide which film to tackle next. Plus, he’s filling his time working on a TV series thriller pilot called River, created by **Paranormal Activity’**s Oren Peli…