The writer/director of the 2004 adaptation of The Punisher, and the man responsible for writing other action fares in the genre like Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Saint and Armageddon has convinced producer Jerry Bruckheimer to go ahead with another action movie over at Walt Disney. Bruckheimer, a veteran of the action blockbuster has been spending the last few years mainly focusing on family adventure movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure.
Variety say Jonathan Hensleigh has sold his pitch Nine Lives to Disney for a big $1.75 million deal, which he will now flesh out a full script for, though there is no word on whether he will direct. The movie revolves around a Manhattan detective called Nine Lives, so dubbed because of the number of shootings he has survived whilst on duty.
This is Hensleigh’s third attempt to get his script for Nine Lives off the ground after he originally sold the script to Disney during the time he was working on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles but it never got made. Later, he pitched the movie to Jerry Bruckheimer who was busy doing The Rock and their schedules would never again match-up so they could go ahead with the film.
Hensleigh’s scripts often feel like they are from the 70’s era of film-making, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing and then if they can find the right director for this then there could be hope.
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I liked Hensleigh a LOT until Punisher. His personal story is kind of interesting too. He was a lawyer in New York who wrote a script called “Simon Says,” which John McTiernan came across and optioned as Die Hard: With a Vengeance. It says a lot about Hensleigh that he could take his script and skillfully make it into a genuine DH film, and a fresh take on the series at the same time. I loved the Rock as well, and thought the Saint was good (for what it was) and faithful to the source material –granted as an American I haven’t read the Saint novellas. All that good will was blown away though with Punisher, as if he’d never written all that good stuff. Though I did appreciate his oblique bashing of Michael Bay.
The guy can turn in a quality script, but Punisher showed he probably shouldn’t be allowed to wander off just yet without someone more skilled to hold his hand. I just hope they don’t let him direct. And they bring in a strong story editor to make sure he tells the tale he’s supposed to be telling and doesn’t wander off into the damned weird and inappropriate territory he did in Punisher.
So far I’m intrigued by the title. Hope there’s more details coming.
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