The ever-unpredictable Mark Romanek may take years to direct a new feature, but the skill displayed in his outings (One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go) is enough for us to continue paying attention — occasional frustration be damned. Almost a year after the announcement that he’d be directing a Shining prequel, Overlook Hotel, a press release from MadRiver Pictures tells us of involvement with an action picture, Norco.
A based-on-true-events picture, yes, but one that still marks a surprising move for the typically chilly and austere helmer. As scripted by Adair Cole, Norco follows a 1980 bank robbery that, in its ensuing shootout and chase, brought about three deaths, multiple injuries, “the destruction of over 30 police cruisers, the downing of a police helicopter and countless injuries.” Key to this story, it seems, are the long-term effects it had in supplying officers with automatic weapons, itself cited as “the first step in today’s militarization of the police.”
Whether that interests Romanek or if he simply wants to make an action picture after all these years, it’s something we’ll be on the lookout for — should the project actually materialize. The man, to his credit, doesn’t hesitate to walk off if things aren’t leaning in his creative direction, and thus the odds of this — or Overlook Hotel, which isn’t mentioned once in the release — coming together are a bit lesser than in most instances of director-attachment news. We hold out hope.
As a bonus, take a look at a documentary on the Norco shootout, as well as sixteen of Romanek’s music videos: