Dominic Cooper Takes MOTOR CITY

Blowing the in-cinemas movie Drive out of the water with a protagonist who isn't one for talking is Motor City, a long gestating film based on a black listed screenplay by Chad St. John whose lead character supposedly only has one line of dialogue in the whole film! Don't ask me how that works but the movie is happening at Warner Bros and Variety says Dominic Cooper is in talks for the leading role. Motor City follows a recently freed small town criminal who takes revenge on the double-crossers who framed him and sent him to jail. Very ordinary idea but the hook will be the minimalist style the story is told in, and of course the aforementioned, almost silent lead. The film is also part of WB's genre shingle Dark Castle who will fully finance under Joel Silver (WB will distribute), so you can definitely expect a Grindhouse-style picture here. After bailing on the live-action Akira remake over a disagreement on almost every creative aspect of the film with the execs, From Hell/Book of Eli co-director Albert Hughes was pushed onto this WB project instead and this will mark his first time behind the camera without his sibling Alan. Sounds like an intriguing film given the ambitious way it will be told and clearly it must work on paper otherwise it wouldn't have hit the black list. For Cooper this will be his first leading role outside of this summer's The Devil's Double where he played both lead characters and it's a huge chance for him to make the transition to top-billing status. This one is likely to begin filming soon.