While his most anticipated film is still waiting in the starting blocks to get shooting (that would be The Wolverine), James Mangold is already looking ahead to future projects, lining up a remake of crime thriller City State.
The original version itself still hasn’t hit cinemas in its native Iceland, but that’s how quickly remake fever is spreading these days. Written and directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, City State is set in the country’s underworld and finds a foreign crime gang trying to take control of the local drug market. Among the characters involved are a dodgy police captain who falls for a prostitute, an aging crime boss with a dicky ticker looking to retire alive, a female police officer who goes on a vengeful spree when she’s attacked by thugs and a mechanic looking to avenge the death of his unborn child.
It seems a risky move to start developing a remake of a film with zero proven audience, but then that’s not usually a worry when crossing borders. Mangold has nabbed the rights for his Tree Line Films company and will track down a writer to get the English language script written while he’s busy making Hugh Jackman pop claws and kill people.