Father Geek here all alone in Austin since Harry has left on his secret 48+ hour mission to THE continent. Well it won't be too bad here I've got the choice of 3 different FREE preview screenings tomorrow night and lots of work to do on the old site, what with CANNES going full tilt, plus all our regular reports flooding in. Speaking of regular reports I just received another of Smilin Jack Ruby's look-sees at a future production's script, he doesn't seem too delighted with it, but I'll let him explain that to you...
Mention of this script made it's way onto the internet last week as Toni Braxton has now been officially announced as attached to the project joining Tom Sizemore and Michael Jai White who also wrote the original story this is based on that was later turned into a screenplay by John Fasano. The director, Kirk Wong, has been heralded thus far as the director of "The Big Hit," but for those instant detractors, he is also the fellow who helmed Jackie Chan's "Crime Story" as well as a number of other Hong Kong action films.
There's no way "Six" will make a dime, but hey, here it is. "Six" is the story of a Super Soldier who has pretty much lost his memory and has been wandering for quite some time towards New York City. Guess what? The government wants him bad as they thought he was already dead (killed in a covert war in Central America) and know that he has this odd super strength. All this guy wants to do (named Eric Lamb and to be played by White) is meander back to wherever he's from, though he doesn't really seem to know where that is. The government tracks him down with the aid of a childhood shrink as Eric gets opportunity after opportunity to kick a lot of people's asses who attack him, thinking he's just a homeless person. A police sergeant named Dan Wynn (probably the Tom Sizemore role) sympathizes with Eric after figuring out he was once a soldier as Eric's wearing what's left of a military uniform while stumbling around incommunicado. Toni Braxton will be playing a nightclub singer named Jeanine Dee whose past is somehow linked to the pre-Central America Eric.
A little confused? Don't be. It's a straight-up actioner that will cost around $20 million and be marketed like "Universal Soldier: The Return" as a movie that features White going around knocking people around that are controlled by "higher-up's" in the government. The title refers to the levels of stress people get to under pressure and in extreme situations with "five" being completely nuts. Eric, lucky guy that he is, hits level six when stressed out and the adrenalin surges through him making him a powerful bad ass.
There is absolutely, positively nothing new here whatsoever and with a lower budget, this sucker would go straight-to-video. Perhaps it will have a place overseas - who knows? Think "Solo" or "Most Wanted" or even parts of "Surviving the Game" and you're there. It even has shades of the first "Universal Soldier" movie, but has a little bit of the animated "X-Men" series tossed in for luck. Would you believe that at one point Eric finds his old blind sensei who originally taught him the discipline to keep his rage under control through martial arts? I thought you would.
I'm not really meaning to trash this script. Chances are, it'll be loads of fun for the crowd that raced out and saw "Universal Soldier: The Return" who got a load of Michael Jai White right there as well as die-hard Troma fans who remember him from "The Toxic Avenger II" and swore then and there to watch everything he's in from there on out. On top of that, who knows - maybe they'll change the script all around and it won't be a predictable actioner based on the solitary fact that someone down the line read a book on stress levels and thought, "what if?" when they came to the chapter after "five" and decided to write a screenplay.
But, when the first trailers start showing up you'll know exactly what I mean.
-Smilin' Jack Ruby
