Watching mixed martial artist Gina Carano fight on television, director Steven Soderbergh was struck by inspiration: Why not build an action movie around the lethal (and yes, gorgeous) athlete to show audiences what a real action heroine could look like? Forget Angelina Jolie in Salt, or any number of actresses who’ve unconvincingly flitted their way through the genre. Carano was the real deal, a woman who can dole out punches with bone-shattering believability, leap between buildings, and battle Hollywood’s best leading men with aplomb, as evidenced in this week’s Haywire.
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Hollywood has a long history of sending white dudes to Japan to A) fall in love with a local hottie and B) somehow save Japan itself, and that irksome trend shows no sign of ending, to my dismay. The latest Caucasian hero set to do so is LOST’s Matthew Fox, who’s signed on to play real-life figure General Bonner Fellers in Peter Webber’s Emperor, a “nail-biting political thriller” about post-World War II diplomacy…and Fellers’ love affair with a Japanese woman. Sigh. Of course.
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AFI Fest's "secret" screening of Steven Soderbergh's Haywire wasn't so much a showcase for the AFI darling as it was a coming out party for MMA bruiser-cum-action heroine Gina Carano, whom Soderbergh glimpsed fighting one night on TV and subsequently built a star-studded spy thriller pic around. But it's hard to say if first-time actor Carano will branch out in a film career beyond the often lo-fi action experiment. Is she a hybrid of Angelina Jolie and Steven Seagal, as Soderbergh suggested Sunday night? Or is there more of a Cynthia Rothrock quality to Carano's steely gaze and powerhouse physicality?
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Whew! It's been quite the eventful week here at Movieline, what with Netflix's Qwikster dying on the vine, indie theater owners giving Universal and VOD what for, and the crazy real life developments you couldn't have dreamed up. (Random Task, we're looking at you... in fear.) Hit your Friday Week in Review and come tomorrow for the weekend stylings of Louis Virtel.
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Actor-musician-martial arts expert-reality TV lawman Steven Seagal is adding a new credit to his offscreen resume: Sheriff's deputy. Yes, this is real, even if it seems like a page taken right out of, say, Machete. The 59-year-old Seagal reportedly rang the West Texas' Hudspeth County Sheriff's Office months ago for the position and "will be working full time to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border." This is the world we live in. Details after the jump.
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Last month it was revealed that Sylvester Stallone was looking for a new director to helm the follow up to his $274 million worldwide-grossing action pic, The Expendables -- and Deadline reports that is still the case. Will Sly take Movieline's humble suggestion of five potential replacement directors who'd be well-suited to helm Expendables 2? And which veteran action stars (Seagal! Van Damme! Snipes?) will join the cast this time around? [Deadline]
