Robert Downey Jr.'s New Movie Franchise Story Details Revealed
Story details for Robert Downey Jr.'s new movie franchise based on the Parker novel series arrive teasing the neo-noir crime thriller. First introduced in 1962's The Hunter and created by Donald E. Westlake under his pseudonym Richard Stark, Parker is a ruthless career criminal with few traditional redeeming qualities, save for being unwilling to double-cross a fellow professional criminal. Parker would go on to appear in 24 of the 28 novels Westlake wrote under his pen name, though the character's first name would never be revealed nor would much of his backstory come to light.
Since making his literary debut, Parker has extended to the big screen on a number of occasions over the years, some of which include Lee Marvin in Point Blank, Robert Duvall in The Outfit, Peter Coyote in Slayground and Mel Gibson in Payback. Interestingly, only one adaptation has kept the character's name intact in the form of the Jason Statham-led Parker, which debuted to mixed reviews from critics in 2013 for its watering down of its source novel, Flashfire, though commended the star for his performance in the titular role. The Parker novels are set to get new life with Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr. leading the charge and now new details are surfacing for the project.
Less than a month after word first broke of his and Shane Black's reunion, Collider has unveiled Robert Downey Jr.'s new movie franchise story details. Entitled Play Dirty, the film will be based on Richard Stark's Parker novels and will revolve around the "cutthroat, one of a kind professional thief who takes his line of work dead serious" and explore his journey to become "the best in biz" through his "hard work and dedication to the craft with a healthy side of not wanting to end up behind bars." Black is set to direct the crime thriller with a script he co-wrote with Charles Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi, while Team Downey is producing with Marc Toberoff and Ezra Emanuel.
Though the film's story details point towards it being somewhat of an origin story for Robert Downey Jr.'s take on the character, Play Dirty appears to be a wholly original story centered around Parker. The new report for the film doesn't indicate any source novels as the primary inspiration for the film's story, a marked departure from previous adaptations who borrowed their plots from Westlake's pages, even if their titles didn't match with the novels. Given much of the character's backstory was purposely kept a secret in the novels, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility for Black and co. to craft a story in line Westlake's writings.
Interestingly, Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr.'s Parker film franchise is also being developed for TV projects at Prime Video, though the extent of the duo's involvement with the small-screen adaptations is unknown at the time of writing. Though a lack of a key source novel may be off putting to some, Prime Video's recent success adapting both The Wheel of Time and Reacher novels and Black and Downey Jr.'s previous successes with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3 should create some promise in fans of the character for a proper adaptation of the character. Only time will tell as development continues on Play Dirty.
Source: Collider