OK, now this is just getting confusing.
One minute, Stopping Power – the Jan De Bont thriller starring John Cusack as a dad forced to turn action hero when dastardly Jason Isaacs kidnaps his daughter in Germany – is on, then it’s off, then it’s on, then it’s definitely off. And that’s where we left it last week, after Internationalmedia had pulled the movie’s funding.
But now, Comingsoon.nethas been speaking to Melissa George, who was set to play Cusack’s girlfriend, and Stopping Power looks like it may be back on! Huzzah!
"It’s back on!” she said, which is pretty definitive. “First of March. Three days into filming, we were in Berlin, they cancelled the film. It worked out so good, because I’m busy doing other things, and I could come back to shoot HBO and I’m going away next Christmas, and then the strike happens next year, so I’m going to go away in March and do this. Look, anything can change, but it’s on. It has to be on."
Well, the ‘has’ at the end there makes this seem less of a sure thing than Ms. George might have us believe. But we hope she’s right - even though De Bont hasn’t directed a good film since Speed, Stopping Power – in which Cusack chases Isaac down like a mad Yorkshire terrier on the German autobahns, where they let you drive really, really, really, really fast – had the potential to let him rebottle lightning.
Stay tuned, though, readers – we’ve got a feeling that this 100% adrenaline-fuelled rollercoaster ride isn’t over yet.