This actually feels kind of right. Just maybe. Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra is set to direct a remake of the 1970 Jean-Pierre Melville heist film Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) for Working Title Films producers/owners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.
With his Liam Neeson thriller poised to make a nice little profit (it only cost $30 million) – it opens today – Collet-Serra himself is poised to make a Pierre Morel-esque jump into the big leagues. [Deadline]
Ironically, Melville’s films serve as premiere examples of less-is-more BIG filmmaking. Also, and more importantly, smart filmmaking. The French auteur spent his career manipulating light and sound and camera angle as his primary special effects. Films like Le Samourai (recently semi-remade into The American) and Le Cercle Rouge use genre narrative (hitman and heist, respectively) to showcase a visual flare few other filmmakers had in their arsenal.
And while Unknown is a refreshingly paranoid and freshly-framed thriller, it’s third act acquiescence to all things action is a bit of a turn off. That said, anyone who can bring in a film as large-looking as Unknown for around $30 million must have a marble rolling around in his noggin.
Do you know Collet-Serra‘s work? Excited for Unknown?