Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
They've been trying to get a movie based on the IO Interactive game series KANE & LYNCH off the ground since before the game even came out, with several cast members signing on and then leaving the production in the interim (as evidenced above). According to THR, the long-gestating adaptation has moved an inch closer towards getting made today with the news that Gerard Butler is in talks to play the more grounded of the two ex-con mercenaries, Kane. He'd be reteaming with his LAW ABIDING CITIZEN director F. Gary Gray, who's been attached for over three years now, which may explain why he got cast. Also very interesting is the news that an offer has been made to Vin Diesel to play the looney-tunes member of the duo, Lynch; no word on his interest level toward the project, but hopefully he can squeeze it in between his commitments to the FAST & FURIOUS franchise and whatever the hell Marvel has planned for him in the next couple of years.
I played both KANE & LYNCH games, and it was quite obvious even then that they'd lend themselves well to a world-hopping, daughter-saving buddy franchise. The titular characters are vicious prison escapees, and although Lynch is the one with murderous, schizophrenic tendencies, they're both a couple of real mean motor-scooters (as Seth Gecko once put it). Butler's played both the grizzled action hero and the desperate father several times now, and there's no doubt he could do this action-heavy role in his sleep, even with a slightly more hardened character than we're used to seeing from him. Hell, in terms of what would be required from him physically, it wouldn't be all too different than his role in the Neveldine/Taylor joint, GAMER, just with a stronger emotional throughline and a more central presence.
But Diesel is the more intriguing choice. He has yet to play the kind of teeth-gnashing, gleefully-mad character that Lynch continually proves to be; even Richard B. Riddick doesn't randomly spray gunfire because he hallucinated that cops with animal heads were rushing him. He'd be the Riggs to Butler's Murtaugh, if Riggs was the kinda guy who would probably kill that whole schoolyard of kids while taking out that sniper. Methinks Diesel would be even cooler (and almost certainly more unhinged) than the previously-cast Jamie Foxx, and it'd be interesting to see his dynamic with Butler's more even-tempered Kane.
What do fans of the game think? Do Butler & Diesel make for a good KANE & LYNCH?
-Vincent Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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