Rob Cohen has discovered that making a film like Stealth doesn’t automatically disqualify you from the Director’s Club. He’s been hired to helm New Line’s prison thriller Scared Straight.
Ron Brinkerhoff is busy re-writing the script, which finds a politician’s teenage son who is banged up as part of a program that aims to scare young offenders so they swear off a life of crime via a short stay in the slammer. But when a riot breaks out and he’s taken hostage, he has to rely on his fellow short-stay street kids and a prisoner to stop the violence.
"After the success of Prison Break, there is revival of interest in the genre," Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's going to be a genre movie with depth, and the depth will come from the character. It's the fight for the soul of this young kid who is on the verge." And he’s not been scared clear of high technology after his last film either: "It's going to be a sophisticated, state-of-the-art prison, which of course will be its weakness."