Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black Team Back Up For an Amazon Film Project PARKER
Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black, who worked together on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3, are teaming up again for a new film project at Amazon. That project is a film adaptation of author Donald Westlake/Richard Stark's Parker novels.
The script for the film was written by Black and he will also direct. Downey Jr. will star in and produce the project. Susan Downey of Team Downey (Sherlock Holmes, Sweet Tooth) and Joel Silver (Lethal Weapon, The Nice Guys) will also executive produce.
Downey will play the cold and meticulous career criminal Parker. Several other actors have portrayed this character over the years including Lee Marvin in 1967's Point Blank, Jim Brown in 1968's The Split, Robert Duvall in 1973's The Outfit, Peter Coyote in 1983's Slayground, Mel Gibson in 1999's Payback, and Jason Statham in 2013's Parker.
Parker is a ruthless career criminal and has almost “no traditional redeeming qualities, aside from efficiency and professionalism. Parker is callous, meticulous, and perfectly willing to commit murder if he deems it necessary. He does, however, live by one ethical principle: he will not double-cross another professional criminal with whom he is working, unless they try to double-cross him. Should that happen, Parker will unhesitatingly undertake to exact a thorough and brutal revenge.”
This will definitely be a different kind of character for Downey Jr. to play. Since he finished his time as Iron Man, he has yet to play another great character. In 2020 Dolittle was released, but that was not a very good movie. Downey will also reunite with his Due Date and The Soloist co-star Jamie Foxx in All-Star Weekend, which is an upcoming sports comedy-drama directed by and starring Foxx.
Parker might end up being a solid project for Downey Jr., and it's awesome that he’s going to be reteaming with Shane Black for it.
Source: Puck's What I'm Hearing