If you follow the site at all, chances are you know that I’m a big fan of parkour and free running, having practiced for a year myself before I really entered the working world. It seems that Hollywood is really late in getting in the parkour game and are now trying to exploit the cool phenomenon made famous by David Belle in District 13.
Though a remake of District 13 , titled Brick Mansions, is in the works and set to shoot this fall, there are two other films that have just made headlines. The first has to do with Twilight star Taylor Lautner. It appears that FilmNation will be selling a film at this year’s Cannes market titled Tracers [clearly a slight twist on the word for one whopractices parkour, traceurs] in which Lautner will take the lead role as Cam, an amazing NYC messenger biker who is in debt to a gang and meets a sexy stranger who introduces him to the world of parkour. The film will be directed by Daniel Benmayor (Bruc, The Manhunt).
Lautner isn’t a complete stranger to Parkour as he used a little bit in his last film Abduction, but supposedly that was just improvised and he hasn’t actually learned how to move. If he somehow masters long distance precision jumping I’ll be somewhat impressed, though I still don’t like the idea of him taking the lead in a film that may look cool but will end up sucking. [via Deadline]
Up next, Variety is reporting that Red Bull Media House has signed on to produce a film titled Twist, a modern day retelling of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist which will be shot in 3D. Twist is set to focus on the Fagin Gang and will use the art of movement (Parkour) to steal art from a variety of places. Sounds like we are going to see some scenes that are very similar in nature to Yamakasi – Les samouraïs des temps modernes. Oliver Blackburn (Donkey Punch) is listed as the director while Kevin Lehane (Grabbers) penned the script. It isn’t clear yet who will be starring in the film but I’m sure we’ll see some familiar faces from the UK in it.
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