Clive Owen started off last year with the disappointing International, but then went on to follow it up with two underrated films, Duplicity and The Boys Are Back. This year he has David Schwimmer‘s Trust and supposedly Spike Lee‘s Inside Man 2 is happening, but now we have a new project he has been attached to star in. Production Weekly reports that Owen will lead in Patrick Alessandrin‘s Protection, an action thriller with a script debut by Brandon Noonan. Last May Screendaily reported that Paul Walker was set to star with Simon West to direct, but it looks like that fell apart. If that synopsis is right, the film is about “a disgraced former Special Forces soldier who takes on Mexican gangs in an attempt to rescue a judge’s daughter.” Noonan was previously attached to a script to be directed by Neil Labute, but that was way back in 2005. You may know Alessandrin from his directing work on District B13: Ultimatum (check out our review here).
I’d love to see Owen return to something in the vein of Shoot ‘Em Up and with this looking like something out of the Luc Besson mindframe, I couldn’t be more excited.
What do you think about the project? Are you a fan of Clive Owen?