Park Life: Marisa Tomei and Liv Tyler will co-star in indie psychological thriller 10A/10B, based on South Korean director Chul-soo Park’s 1995 film 301/302 and to be directed by Park. Tomei’s character, a fading actress, and Tyler’s character, a “culinary perfectionist†(?), become neighbors in an apartment building and, we assume, engage in some kind of thrilling face-off. This sounds better than the original already: Everyone knows the first floor is way scarier than the third floor. [Variety]
Dr. Keanu: Keanu Reeves will star in Universal’s adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For the record, this is not Guillermo Del Toro’s previously announced Jekyll and Hyde, which is also set up at Universal; apparently, that one’s still on but won’t actually come out for, like, a decade because The Hobbit is expected to take up the next five years and Del Toro’s got a few projects already next in line. So now studios are retroactively planning to recycle material? Good stuff. [HR]
Statham Kills: Jason Statham will star in a remake of 1972 Charles Bronson flick The Mechanic. In the original, Bronson played an extremely badass, extremely detached hit man who ends up training the son of one of his victims. (The tagline: “In this box are the tools of his trade. He has more than a dozen ways to kill and they all work. They call him the mechanic.â€) We know, we know — we were also hoping it would be literally about a mechanic. [Variety]
Pirate Talk: Samuel L. Jackson’s Uppity Films has acquired the life rights of pirate negotiator Andrew Mwangura and will produce a movie with Jackson in the starring role. Mwangura makes his living as a journalist, but has established himself, through his Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, as a reliable negotiator between the pirates and their captured parties. Sounds great, especially because Jackson has experience negotiating with the man many consider the world’s most dangerous pirate: Kevin Spacey. [Variety]
Faster and More Furiouser: Vin Diesel’s Wheelman project is getting going. The movie was originally announced in 2006 along with the video game of the same name, produced by and starring Diesel and released last month; In the movie, to be directed by John Singleton, Diesel will play an expert driver forced to come out of retirement to protect a woman from his past. As far as Fast and Furious retreads go, we prefer the sound of this one. [Variety]
Tech Support: Marc Forster will direct Disconnect, a tech thriller about how people live with technology that is meant to bring them together but that only sets them farther apart. Oh yeah, Forster? How would we have found out about this movie if it weren’t for beautiful, beautiful technology? [Variety]