Neal Moritz, the producer behind I Am Legend and a lot of less palatable, yet still financially profitable films like Made of Honor, has a new project with Relativity Media. He’s producing an action thriller called Hunter-Killer. Why should you care? Because it’s a submarine movie.
Hollywood hasn’t made a decent submarine movie since Below. Unfortunately absolutely no one but me saw it, which means to most of you Hollywood hasn’t made a decent submarine movie since Crimson Tide back in 1995. That’s a crying shame. You just can’t beat alpha males shoved into a cramped metal tube and trapped underwater when it comes to heavy-duty underwater adventure. We’re due for a good sub flick. The world can’t have too many Hunt for Red Octobers.
Hunter-Killer is based on a book by Don Keith, who writes a whole series of books about submarines in odd situations. For instance he’s got one about submarines versus drug lords. This one though, is a little more traditional. It’s the story of an American sub commander and a group of Navy Seals who must rescue the Russian President from a coup, while defeating a renegade Admiral and avoiding World War III. Political tension is the stuff a good sub movie is made of.
No word on casting yet, Relativity has just purchased the script, but Pierre Morel is in talks to direct. Morel is a French director, who most recently helmed the Liam Neeson movie Taken, due out in January of next year. Great sub movies need good casting though. Hunt For Red October had Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. Crimson Tide had Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. If Relativity really wants this one to work, forget the script, forget the director, get an amazing cast. Patrick Dempsey is not going to cut it Moritz. You need Tom Hanks as the sub commander and Christian Bale to lead the Navy Seals. Settle for nothing but the best.
