Maria Bello and Stephen Dorff are lined up to star in Peter Medak’s upcoming indie thriller Carjacked, which goes into production in September.

The film follows a mother and child, who are carjacked by a bank robber on the run, “who has no intention of letting them go.” To me, it sounds like The Night of the Hunter meets Shuttle or Cujo.

However, Medak is a director known for his crime dramas, so maybe he can spin gold from this tenuous premise. Dorff does intense and dangerous well enough and Bello proves interesting no matter what film she’s in. Yet, their casting seems to steer the film in a different direction than would the previous line-up: Ron Perlman and Saffron Burrows.

For one thing, Perlman often plays tough guys with a soft center, but Dorff is most noted for his roles as an unhinged antagonist. Then, Burrows is often ladylike and softer-seeming than the hard-edged Bello, whose characters seem to have a deeply-rooted strength no matter their traumas. Ultimately, with Dorff and Bello on board, Carjacked should be a dark ride.

What do you think of Carjacked’s casting?

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