Since word started about a Spy Hunter movie, children have went on to college, a summer and a winter olympics have passed, and Phil Spector murdered someone. Today we have an update from producer Adrian Askarieh via our friends at the moviehole:
‘Spy Hunter’ is such an enormously important project for Universal Pictures and for us. They have supported it financially, and in terms of resources, so much that the plan has always been to get it right. Now, having said that, I think in the last 5 years the business has gone through a change. It’s this paradigm shift that, in my opinion, began in the year 2000. It’s really taking its full form now. People now need to make movies like ‘Spy Hunter’, ‘Batman’, ’Hitman’, ’Star Trek’, ‘Indiana Jones’, and that is exactly what is sustaining this business. Without these movies I don’t think there would be a Hollywood, given the competition from Internet, video games, 500 channels on cable. So ‘Spy Hunter’ falls squarely within that group of movies, because it’s based on a title that has transcended its video game origins. It’s become a huge part of pop culture. People who do not play video games know ‘Spy Hunter’. You have a responsibility to do the right version.
There you have it folks! Spy Hunter is in the shop, because they are concerned about excellence. It is true that in a competitive field, quality will matter most, so I appreciate Askarieh being proactive and wanting to make sure the film is done right. Everyone wants to watch good movies, and they seem to be getting harder to come by some days. (Of course if the movie turns out to be shit, the above statement will make him look like a damn dirty fib master!)
I am just concerned that he may be ill informed about the popularity of Spy Hunter. It was a pretty shitty video game as far as I am concerned, even back in the day I though it was “alright” at best. I do not know anyone that is nostalgic in the slightest for this game, and I know a lot of people into video games. I fear all the reverence being paid to the original game may fall on deaf ears, and after a few years; I would hazard a guess that production costs are not running cheap.
Since news broke that the Rock left the project, we thought the writing was on the wall for this one. Apparently it is still happening, and perhaps it will pull a Superman Returns and make money after being on the shelf forever; but if Doom lost money at the theatre – it isn’t looking good.
