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That the Media Asia backed, Hong Kong and Macau set remake of Jean Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge has lost original director Johnnie To is not news. To told us so himself while attending the Toronto International Film Festival in September. However, those who assumed from that bit of news that the project was now dead may have been a bit premature.
Word is now out that the directing gig has been offered to Australia's John Hillcoat and, from the sounds of things, the director of The Road and The Proposition has accepted. In an interview last week Hillcoat tipped his involvement with the project saying he has "another contemporary thriller, crime thriller, set in Hong Kong and Macau." It appears that this is Le Cercle Rouge. And while Hillcoat may not be an obvious choice for the job he certainly strikes me as a good one.
Word is now out that the directing gig has been offered to Australia's John Hillcoat and, from the sounds of things, the director of The Road and The Proposition has accepted. In an interview last week Hillcoat tipped his involvement with the project saying he has "another contemporary thriller, crime thriller, set in Hong Kong and Macau." It appears that this is Le Cercle Rouge. And while Hillcoat may not be an obvious choice for the job he certainly strikes me as a good one.
Shame. Would've liked to Johnnie To's treatment of it. On the bright side, To has bought himself more time to shoot [i]Life Without Principle[/i] which looks more promising imo.
It's kind of hard for me to get a grip on this project because my connection to it is only a loose one. I've only seen one of Hillcoat's films, The Proposition. Loved it. I've only seen one of Melville's movies, and it isn't LCR. It's Le Samourai. But Hillcoat doing something based on a film that is presumably similar to Le Samourai and setting it in Hong Kong sounds like fun to me. Count me in.
The Sad thing is that Melville is a master director, he is a God! And LCR is excellent, I think there is no reason to Remake it. ¿Is the world out of good ideas that we keep on remaking every movie that was successful?