'Drive', then 'Run': Ryan Gosling returns to his Genre roots

Before becoming a Leo DiCaprio for a new generation by starring in The Notebook, and before garnering critical acclaim for his performances in such indie dramas as Half Nelson and Blue Valentine, Ryan Gosling had a plum role as part of a Leopold and Loeb-like pair of killers in the thriller Murder By Numbers.  A film that I, for one, quite enjoyed.  Fuck off.

Cut to:  Several years later.  Blah blah "Blow Up Doll", yadda yadda "Crack Addict". . .  Ok, here's something interesting!  Gosling's next, actually potentially interesting movie to come out is titled Drive, in which he plays a wheelman (Not the nautical kind.  An assistant bank robber.) who's marked for death after screwing up a job.  Albert Brooks plays the big bad, and you've got a supporting cast that includes Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, and Ron Perlman.  It's directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who you likely DON'T know from such films as the trippy viking film Valhalla Rising (Read my review here), and real-life prison/bio/cult film Bronson.  To top off the awesome, you've got Bryan Singer's go-to cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel shooting this bitch, so Christina is going to look better then you ever thought possible.

But that's old news;  on to the new news!  Bryan Singer's a good segue person here; For years, he's been trying to make a new adaptation/remake of Logan's Run, the 60's William F. Nolan novel turned 70's Michael York vehicle.  In the book, future society has one unbreakable rule;  Thou Shall Not Age.  Kids run the world until their twenty-first birthday, at which time they're expected to willfully kill themselves in group, ritual suicide.  The story follows one boy who's job is to chase, and kill, the kids who run away from their "civic duty";  until he decides to go on the run himself.

In the seventies film adaptation, which took several liberties, the age of enforced death was raised to 30.  Looks like they're following suit in the remake; Ryan Gosling has just signed on to play the lead, from a script by 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland.  Singer has made himself unavailable, being deep into production on his version of Jack The Giant Killer, so it's looking like the director is going to be;  Nicolas Winding Refn!

You may not have seen any of Refn's films yet, but trust me;  this is great news.  The Dane has got a great eye, and a wide range of styles.  I can't wait to see what happens when he's unleashed upon a sci-fi world, with a budget.

Via The Hollywood Reporter