Either earlier this week or late last week, The Grey director Joe Carnahan announced he would write and direct a adaptation/remake of Death Wish. Carnahan’s intentions with the project is to stick more to Brian Garfield’s original 1972 novel as well as setting in a post Collateral/Drive Los Angeles. In other words, Carnahan wants to top Michael Mann and Nicolas Winding Refn. That seems impossible to me, but if Carnahan hires an excellent location scout and continues to work with his Grey cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, he could create a unique Los Angeles. 

A story on /Film seems to indicate that they’re going after Russell Crowe for the lead or possibly Liam Neeson. On the poster, those names work, but it just seems too on the nose. If one’s going to make a film about a man pushed to the limit with society, find a actor that would be shocking to see pick up a gun. I would want to see an actor like Ty Burrell from “Modern Family” as the lead. He’s best known to audiences as this goofy dad, but how crazy would it be to see him all Death Wish out. Or somebody like John Hawkes. Go against the grain and type. 

Liam Neeson in Taken worked because the audience didn’t expect him to be this ass kicking machine, but if you put him in Death Wish , the audience is going to get restless and look at their watches until he starts doing stuff. The title of the film removes a majority of that element of surprise, but it could be still retained, if there’s an actor in the lead without an action movie background.