The Dirty Dozen Go To Hell movie proves “high-concept” can always get a little higher
Some movies are sold on the pedigree of their stars, the firm knowledge that Tom Cruise or Jennifer Lawrence can always get butts in seats. Others trade on a recognizable property, or a director’s lingering critical buzz. And some movies are sold because the ideas that power them are just too stupid and beautiful not to be made. We call these last movies “high-concept,” and they may have found their new and rightful king.
Deadline is reporting that work has started on Hell Bent, a movie that’s being described as “The Dirty Dozen Go To Hell.” The plot—scripted by Mike Finch, whose other Very Dumb Scripts include Predators and Hitman: Agent 47—centers on a bunch of hardass convicts who get murdered by a mysterious priest so that they can all team up in Hell and assassinate the devil. (Somewhere in an abandoned castle in Hollywood, meanwhile, Nic Cage’s ears just pricked up.) Paramount Pictures is developing the movie, with Corin Hardy set to direct.
Hardy is best known for signing on to, and then departing from (and then, if Deadline is right, maybe signing on again) the remake of The Crow. He also picked up some heat at last year’s Sundance Festival for his horror movie The Hallow, which apparently convinced the studio that he was the right man to film some up-and-coming action star growling a one-liner as he launches a jumpkick at Satan’s horny head.