Sylvester Stallone puts down the Bazooka to play a mob killer in Scarpa

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

While you might suggest that Sylvester Stallone slowly walk away from action movies, there’s no reason the legend can’t take on quieter roles, perhaps something without his Expendables. News has come down that THE LINCOLN LAWYER (awesome) and RUNNER RUNNER (not awesome) director Brad Furman is set to direct Sylvester Stallone in SCARPA, a gangster drama.

The film was written by Nicholas Pileggi (GOODFELLAS and CASINO) and tells the story of Gregory Scarpa, a former capo and hit man for the Colombo crime family. Scarpa claimed he killed 50 people before dying in incarceration in 1994 of AIDS-related complications. In digging up details about Scarpa you will find that Scarpa was a pretty awful human being who more than likely killed his own family. As "The Grim Reaper", he disposed of enemies for the Colombo mob family, and apparently called himself "The Killing Machine". Dude has more nicknames than a WWE gimmick battle royal. And like a lot of cowards, he eventually gave and became (spoiler alert) an FBI informant.

While a lot of these kind of movies seem to come and go (THE ICEMAN, KILL THE IRISHMAN), with involvement from Pileggi and Stallone, this has the makings of a solid release and not some straight to VOD or two theater run. With a solid screenplay and Stallone stepping away from the heavy artillery, this has a lot of potential.

Fine, RUNNER RUNNER did have one redeeming quality: Gemma Arterton.