13 TZAMETI, the ultimate Russian roulette movie, gets big name Hollywood remake!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

The casting is all but complete for 13, the Hollywood remake of a much liked psychological French noir thriller 13 TZAMETI which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival a few years. Variety say Ray Liotta, Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, Jason Statham, Sam Riley and er, 50 Cent will star.

Riley ("Control") plays the title character, a young man who stumbles into an underground competition where the wealthy gamble on human beings in a Russian Roulette-like competition. Rourke... will play a convict in a Mexican prison who is sold into the competition. Winstone... will play a competitor who has been sprung from a mental institution to participate; 50 Cent ("Righteous Kill") will play an employee assigned to escort Rourke's character to the bloody game. Statham... plays a wealthy British man who bets on the competition and has a peculiar interest in one of the competitors. Liotta... will play a cop on the trail of the illegal game.

Seduced by the bigger budget, the bigger resources and no doubt the bigger wage... Gela Babluani, the writer/director of the original is back on board to do the same task. No word if this version will be black and white also. I had never seen anything from the film before today but my God, you have to watch this video below. Just utterly intense, imagine seeing a trailer for this in your local cinema and with actors like Winstone, Liotta, Statham, Rourke etc.

Production begins in New York on Nov. 20th.

The thriller will be produced by Rick Schwartz and his Overnight Prods. label; Barbarian Films' Aaron Kaufman; and Valerio Morabito.