The past summer’s Salt (starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Shreiber) marked Clear and Present Danger director Philip Noyce‘s welcome return to mainstream filmmaking. Salt was a slick, entertaining espionage thriller that grossed $293 million worldwide. Now, ComingSoon.Net reports (via MovieHole) that Noyce will not return to the director’s chair if a sequel is greenlit.
“Those 3 [alternate] Blu-ray cuts [of the film] represent just about everything I have to offer on Evelyn Salt,” Noyce told Moviehole. “If there ever is a sequel, better its directed by someone with a completely fresh take on what I believe could be a totally entertaining and complex series of stories.”
This news is not terribly surprising, given Noyce’s indifference to the Hollywood system. Salt may have been something fun, as well as a way to position himself once again at the forefront of Hollywood’s more commercial directors.(He’s the man behind the Jack Ryan movies with Harrison Ford and Sliver).
Since he left Hollywood’s mainstream, however, he has made probably his best films: his brilliant adaptation of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, and a tale of his native Australia, Rabbit-Proof Fence. Noyce is a gifted filmmaker whose talents have not faded – I’m looking forward to much more stellar work in the future.
What did you think of Salt? Who should take over the directing duties from Noyce?