website tracking
Search The Big Picture

« Weird Trailer for Casey Affleck's 'Killer Inside Me' | Main | Radha Screams For Her Life in a New 'Crazies' Image »
Thursday
05Nov2009

'Taken' Director Attached to Paranoid Thriller 'Signals'

DateThursday, November 5, 2009 at 5:10PM
There are two names you probably need to get to know in this article if you're not familiar with them already. The first is Pierre Morel, director of Taken and the upcoming From Paris With Love, which looks not nearly as good. Still, he's in demand these days and has another blood-pumping thriller called Pursuit in the works over at Universal.

The second name to file away for later is Media Rights Capital. It's a company that bankrolls movies at TV shows. This year, it's had Bruno, Shorts, The Invention of Lying, and this weekend's The Box. Bruno is probably the only real hit among that group, but MRC got in the Matt Damon business a few months ago and is producing The Adjustment Bureau for next year, plus 2011's Devil, spearheaded by Night Shyamalan.

Take Morel and Media Rights Capital and throw 'em together and what do you get? Signals, a thriller MRC bought back in April and is now speeding into production. It's been described as a contemporary film that echoes "the tone of a 1970s-era paranoid thriller like Three Days of the Condor. That decade, possibly the greatest or second greatest in all of cinema, did its paranoid thrillers right, so this isn't a bad thing at all.

"Pierre Morel is one of the most exciting filmmakers to emerge in years," said Tory Metzger of Media Rights Capital, not waiting for dissent. "Audiences have come to expect edge-of-their-seat action from him, and we are confident this next film will deliver just that."

Morel has worked with Luc Besson on a few modestly budgeted Euro-thrillas that have become quite profitable, and it's hard to knock the business model even if most of those movies aren't anywhere near as rewarding as Taken. I don't know if Besson is involved in this project or not, but from the description, you likely wouldn't notice the difference either way.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>