The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Killer’s Game, a film idea that has been stuck in development hell for over two decades, may finally see the light. Action icon Jason Statham (The Transporter, Crank) and director D.J. Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye, XXX: The Return of Xander Cage) will team up for Killer’s Game, based on the 1997 novel by Jay Bonansinga which has been circulating Hollywood since before its publication.
The book centers on Joe Flood, a hitman who prides himself on killing only those who deserve to die and is told by his doctor that he has merely a few months to live. Flood puts out an open contract on himself to the assassins of the world but soon finds out that the lab made a mistake and he’s in perfect health. Now he must fend off all of his former associates trying to kill him.
Steve Richards of Endurance Media and Andrew Lazar of Mad Chance will produce the film, with STXfilms in talks to finance and distribute the movie.
The feature film version of Killer’s Game has been around to various studios in Hollywood, including Paramount and Warner Bros., with the likes of Michael Keaton and Wesley Snipes signing on at one point or another. Directors Alex Proyas (The Crow), John Woo (Hard Boiled, The Killer), Pitof (Catwoman), Rupert Wainwright (The Fog remake), Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2), Simon Crane (second unit director of Rogue One, Edge of Tomorrow) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) have all been attached to the project previously before it fell through.
