terrorist

Tony Scott’s next movie will be a remake of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, a 1970’s movie which that Quentin Tarantino homaged in RESERVOIR DOGS. You see, the terrorists in the movie call themselves by colours, so you have Mr. Green, Mr. Brown, Mr. Blue etc.

In the original, terrorists of New York City have hijacked a subway train and are demanding a million dollars from the city or a passenger will die every minute. Walter Matthau starred in the original as a cynical cop whose task it is to bring down the terrorists but what made this plot every more intriguing was that even if the ransom was met by the city officials, the terrorists would never be able to leave the train because one man must be kept at the control at all times.

The movie was based on a John Godey novel and was of course part of the greatest film-making decade in history - the 70’s - where movie stars weren’t hired. They went for actors who would make the material memorable, which meant gritty characters actors would end up with the lead roles, such as Robert Shaw who plays terrorist Mr. Blue.

If talks go well, Entertainment Weekly report that Denzel Washington will be the cynical cop in this one, in what will be his fourth collaboration with Scott after last year’s DEJA VU (where, oh, he played a cynical cop), MAN ON FIRE (cynical cop again) and CRIMSON TIDE.

In fact, Washington is so good at playing a cynical cop he did it again with Spike Lee’s INSIDE MAN last year, in a plot that is extremely similar to this one if you just exchange the bank for a train.

But ya know, all those movies above are cool. I dig them all. Rarely does Tony Scott not make a movie that is enjoyable, he’s a modern day Richard Donner for me. A remake that will play on a lot of all our current fears in society, so you can see why it’s being fast-tracked as a pre-strike movie. It may be controversial, but Scott isn’t one to shy away from that. This could be good.