Back in April of last year we here at Cinema Blend threw our hands up in the air in exhaustion when it was announced that the upcoming remake of the classic early-90s action movie Point Break had found a filmmaker to direct, but today we sadly report that the situation has only gotten worse: they've moved on to the casting stage. According to Variety, Alcon Entertainment is now in negotiations with 300 star Gerard Butler to play the central antagonist of the new film, meaning that if he winds up signing on he will be stepping into the legendary shoes of Patrick Swayze.
The original film, which came out back in 1991 and was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, told the story of an FBI Agent named Johnny Utah (played by Keanu Reeves) who goes undercover to try and infiltrate a group of surfers that spend their time away from the waves putting on rubber masks of American presidents and robbing banks. In order to differentiate itself from the original, the remake won't be set in the world of surfing, but instead in the world of extreme sports (are we back in 2002?). Butler's character will still be named Bodhi and should he sign on he will play the head of the criminal organization. Kurt Wimmer, who most recently helped bring Total Recall back to theaters in disastrous fashion, is writing the screenplay, while Ericson Core, the director of 2006's Invincible, is attached to direct.
This actually isn't the first time that Butler's name has come up in conversations about a remake of a classic action movie. All the way back in 2007 it looked as though the Scottish actor was the frontrunner to replace Kurt Russell as the new Snake Plissken in the Escape From New York reboot. Fortunately, that project ultimately fell into development hell, and hopefully it will stay down there for the rest of eternity.
At this stage I'm not really sure I understand the Hollywood remake game anymore. Sure, occasionally studios are able to reinvigorate a franchise and make it big again (for example, 2010's The Karate Kid), but when you look at the performances of movies like Len Wiseman's Total Recall, Craig Gillespie's Fright Night and Spike Lee's Oldboy it becomes hard to see the logic in the strategy. It's also worth mentioning that the first Fast and Furious movie only came out 12 years ago, and that was basically Point Break with cars:
Now that one actor has been brought aboard, chances are that we should hear news about recasting Johnny Utah. While I understand that there are probably very few people out there who want to see this movie happen, is there any actor out there who you think could be a decent replacement for Keanu Reeves (considering he won't be back)? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
