Empire doesn’t earn much – enough to keep us in DVDs and Benjy’s sausage sandwiches – but dammit, we’re going to dip into our four-figure salary and have a whip-round for Jan De Bont and John Cusack.
For today came the sad news that Stopping Power, the high-voltage, high-octane, rollercoaster ride of an action movie that the duo were about to start filming in Berlin, has been taken round the back of a shed and shot once in the head.
Or, in less metaphorical terms, Internationalmedia, the German company whose subsidiary, Intermedia, was a co-producer on the movie, a real-time thriller in which Cusack’s daughter would be kidnapped by Jason Isaac’s mean nasty bad man, forcing him to then act as a decoy for the German cops while simultaneously chasing after them on Germany’s speedfreak autobahns, pulled the plug on the $40 million budget after one of the pic’s financial backers pulled out.
As a result, IM Stopping Power, a separate production subsidiary for the film, has filed for insolvency – and that, as they say, would appear to be that.
But boo, hiss, and shame, we cry! For, even if Stopping Power did sound a heck of a lot like De Bont was trying to mine that old Speed magic (stick Keanu or Sandy Bullock in it and you could have had a threequel), it sounded like it might have kicked all kinds of ass and, dagnammit, we wanted to see it!
And, frankly, we’re surprised that, following 1408’s recent sleeper success, Cusack’s name can’t entice some happy-go-lucky Russian billionaire to stop farting around with Premiership clubs and invest a mere $40 million in a movie that will probably make all its money back unless it’s an absolute stinker.
So here today, Empire is starting the Stop Stopping Power From Being Stopped Campaign (or SSPFBSC for short). We need YOU, the Empire readers, to put your hands into your pockets and dig deep so that all Jan de Bont and Johnny Cusack’s hard work won’t have been in vain.
We’re starting the fund with a contribution of £5. Only another £39,999,995 to go. Who’s with us? Anyone? ANYONE…???