David Ayer has begun to prove himself more and more as a director to be reckoned with. From his gritty crime films HARSH TIMES and STREET KINGS through his found footage END OF WATCH and the action-packed SABOTAGE, Ayer has made a name for himself as the go to guy for a very specific type of film. His next movie, the Brad Pitt starrer FURY may also show that Ayer can segue into other genres as well. Maybe that is why he was connected to a remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s cult classic COMMANDO for so long.
Well, now that appears to be a dead project, at least as far as Ayer’s involvement goes. In a recent conference call to promote FURY, Ayer was asked about the status of the COMMANDO remake to which the filmmaker replied that he is no longer involved. Whether that means the project is not moving forward or not is unknown, but any hope that it would be more than a cash grab seems to go up in smoke with Ayer off the project.
While Ayer is not exactly Martin Scorsese, there is an integrity to his movies that makes them more than just a generic action flick. FURY looks like it has some real character depth to it and SABOTAGE was suprisingly fun. But, COMMANDO is a film so entrenched in the 1980s type of action movie it may not be the best candidate for being remade. I mean, can you every truly live up to the sheer insanity of the original?
Here’s to hoping that if COMMANDO is still in development that they find someone (ahem, Joe Carnahan) that could instill it with the same level of lunacy that we got back in 1985.