For a minute, it looked like Gerard Butler might be done. The Scottish actor had never quite cemented his stardom since breaking through with “300,” and had a series of painfull and gigantic flops in the last few months, with both “Chasing Mavericks” and “Playing For Keeps” proving to be box office disasters. But then salvation arrived, in the unlikely shape of “Olympus Has Fallen,” the White House-set “Die Hard” knock off that proved to be a surprise hit, currently nesting just under the $100 million mark.
It was proof that Butler does have an audience in the right kind of picture, and Butler looks to be learning from the lesson, as according to Heat Vision, he’s just signed on to the sci-fi actioner “The Raven.” Thankfully unrelated to the John Cusack/Edgar Allan Poe train wreck, the long-gestating project began life as a short film back in 2010, and was quickly snapped up for a remake, with Mark Wahlberg, and more recently Liam Hemsworth, linked to the project.
It seems that the latter, who was only mentioned back in April, has fallen off, but Butler has replaced him in the main role of Chris Black, a young man on the run from a robotic police force. Original short helmer Ricardo de Montreuil is on board to direct from a script by Justin Marks and Michael Gilio, while Gold Circle are backing the project, with filming hoped to begin before the end of the year. So is it the next “District 9,” or the next “Total Recall” remake? Take a look at the original short below, and judge for yourself.
