British actor Ray Winstone has been killing it for the last few years, popping up in a sea of recent American films where his grimy accent coats and dips everything around it in slime. Too burly to be the leading man, but too full of brutish charisma to be relegated to the background, he's been a scenery-chewing presence you can't ignore. And now, he'll be bringing his uneasy, vulgar masculinity to that vulgar, masculine venue that is the action movie remake.
Winstone is in talks to appear in the ill-advised remake of Point Break alongside newcomer Luke Bracey, according to Variety. He'll be playing the young fellow's partner, as Bracey's Johnny Utah infiltrates a gang of bank robbers and becomes one of them. This would be the role of Pappas in the original, played with a side of oily charm by Gary Busey. So, you know, big shoes to fill and all.
This new version of the story apparently is less about surfing and more about extreme sports, which should make it the hottest movie of 1997. Bracey's Johnny Utah eventually gets seduced into a group of bank robbers led by sexy, charismatic new-age criminal Bodhi, played by Gerard Butler in a role previous occupied by the late Patrick Swayze. Again, big shoes. This redo is being brought to you by director Ericson Core, a long-time cinematographer who moved into directing with the football hit Invincible but somehow still does not have his own Wikipedia page. Get on it, Ericson! Invincible impressed enough people that Core's been in the conversation for a number of bigger films, and it looks like the remake of the Kathryn Bigelow classic was the best fit.
Winstone, who can be seen right now in Noah, has a mighty full dance card. He's got a sizable role in the Sean Penn vehicle The Gunman, because even Penn deserves his own Taken. While Winstone seems like a big burly type not exactly fit for the sort of action that a role like this would require, you have to recall that this was the guy who played Beowulf a few years back. Would you mess with him? Of course, the bigger question is, can he deliver the same level of charisma as Gary Busey did to the original Point Break? Get him two, Utah.
