With Ang Lee filming Gemini Man and this news, it appears that 2018 is becoming The Year Where Long-Dormant Projects Finally Spring To Life. In this case, it's an action thriller called The Killer's Game, which has Jason Statham in talks to star and DJ Caruso on to direct.
The story for this one finds an assassin discovering that he has a life-threatening illness. Looking to avoid the incoming pain, but clearly unable to contemplate ending it himself, he puts a hit out on himself. You can imagine what happens next: that's right, he discovers that the doctors were wrong, he's going to live and everything will be fine? Not so fast! He's unable to cancel the kill and now must fend off former colleagues who have him in their sights for the payday.
Game would be based on a Jay Bonansinga novel, which was published in 1997 and immediately optioned. But ever since then, it has lingered, with the history of this one a cinematic archeologists' delight of names who have come and gone looking to adapt it: Alex Proyas, John Woo, Rupert Wainwright and Renny Harlin are just a sampling of the directors, while Michael Keaton and Wesley Snipes flirted with the lead and Simon Kinberg worked on the script before he became wrapped up in the X-universe. If Statham and Caruso actually get to work on this one, it could actually come to life, but let's all check back in in, say, 20 years...
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