Spec script sale: “Gunslinger”
Warner Bros. picks up action-revenge spec script “Gunslinger” from writer John Hlavin:
“Gunslinger” follows an ex-Texas Ranger who will stop at nothing to find and punish the men who killed his brother and rescue his nephew. The project is described as being in the vein of “Man on Fire” and “Taken.”
“Gunslinger” is the first feature spec sale for Hlavin, who got his break as an assistant to show¬runner Nick Thiel on NBC’s “LAX.”
Hlavin is repped by UTA and Benderspink.
Who can forget all those Charles Bronson revenge movies:
Death Wish (1974)
Paul Kersey, New York Archtitect, is a bleeding-heart liberal whose world is suddenly torn apart by the murder of his wife and the rape of his daughter. After a vacation to Arizona, Kersey returns to New York with a vengeance against crime, and takes to vigilantism.
Death Wish 2 (1982)
Paul Kersey, the architect whose wife was murderd in the first movie, has stoped now the killings, and lives a normal life, away from New York. But this is not going to last too much, because his daughter is now raped and murderd. Paul takes his gun again…
Death Wish 3 (1985)
Paul Kersey, New York architect and part-time vigilante, comes to LA to visit an old friend. Instead, he must avenge his death by fighting youth gangs.
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
Paul Kersey, LA architect and part-time vigilante, is fed up with violence and wants a quiet life. However, when friend’s daughter dies of overdose, he has no choice but to go to war on drug dealers.
Note how in each one, somebody close to the Protagonist dies. It’s all that’s required to set the revenge plot into motion. Compare to the plot of the recent runaway smash Taken:
The film follows an ex-CIA “Preventer” skilled in hand to hand combat who must rescue his daughter after she is kidnapped during her Paris vacation by human trafficking sex-traffickers.
Very simple. Very clean. And a powerful emotional core.
That’s another movie type I need to post: Revenge Movies.
Any others come to mind?