Amazon’s Robert Downey Jr.-Shane Black-Joel Silver Reteam For ‘Parker’ Crime Franchise To Launch With ‘Play Dirty’ Movie
deadline.comVeteran producer Joel Silver (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey and Amazon Studios are partnering to develop a series of feature film and television projects based on Donald E.
Westlake’s series of highly popular Parker crime fiction novels, written under the pseudonym Richard Stark.The first project emerging from the deal will be the film Play Dirty, in which Downey Jr. (Marvel’s Avengers franchise) is set to star as Parker, a professional thief who approaches his job with a straightforward, no-nonsense work ethic.
He’s a craftsman. He’s brutal, brilliant. He’s also deadly. He’s whatever it takes to get the money and get away clean. The Parker character was first introduced in 1962’s The Hunter from Pocket Books and featured in 23 other titles from Westlake, subsequently serving as the basis for such films as Parker with Jason Statham, Payback with Mel Gibson, and The Outfit with Robert Duvall.Shane Black (The Nice Guys) adapted the screenplay for Play Dirty with Charles Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi and is set to direct.
Silver will produce alongside Downey Jr. and Downey for Team Downey, and Marc Toberoff, with Ezra Emanuel co-producing. The film reunites Downey Jr., Downey, Black and Silver almost two decades following the release of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, their Warner Bros.
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