After hanging up his Iron Man armor, it looks like Robert Downey Jr. is, at long last, getting interested in working with talented directors once more. He’s currently filming Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and attached to The Sympathizer series directed by Park Chan-wook. Now, he’s set to reteam with the director of one of his finest works.
Shane Black, who directed Downey Jr. in the brilliant Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (and also proved how to make a Marvel movie interesting with Iron Man 3), will reunite with the actor for a new take on the Parker character, originated by Donald E. Westlake aka Richard Stark. As reported by Matthew Belloni in his newsletter (via Comicbook.com), the crime drama is set up at Amazon Studios and will see Team Downey also produce.
The protagonist of dozens of novels by Westlake, the Parker character graced the big screen in a handful of films, including the Lee Marvin-led classic Point Blank, as well as The Split starring Gene Hackman, Payback with Mel Gibson, and most recently, Parker with Jason Statham. There are no details if there’s a specific novel Black is inspired by, but the project promises to be a bounce-back for the writer-director after the debacle that was The Predator.
See the trailer for Point Blank below as we await more details.