Jan De Bont directing POINT BREAK 2

I meant to write about this last night but straight after scribing that Nicolas Cage/Bad Lieutenant post I went for a lie down and never got back up. Damn sure fell straight asleep! Oh well, here is the article for you now. It was first rumored EXACTLY ONE YEAR AGO FROM TODAY - May 14th 2007 - but 12 months on and we now we have some serious movement on the project. The Hollywood Reporter have confirmed that Jan De Bont (Twister, Speed) will helm a sequel to the 1991 surfer cop classic Point Break - a movie which has earned a resurgence in popularity post-Hot Fuzz.

Just don't expect it to star either Reeves or Swayze. The former recently said a big NO to anymore sequels and Swayze would be unavailable due to health reasons - though it's likely both have been offered big bucks to return. The film will be called Point Break: Indo (as it's taking place in Indonesia) and it's being cooked up by RGM and Essential Entertainment. W. Peter Iliff who wrote the original screenplay has also penned this installment which will probably be budgeted at around $30 million. Plot details below. It takes place 20 years after the original...

When Billy Dalton, military special ops and star surfer, is disqualified from the pro-surfing tour, he takes off for the coast of Bali looking for the perfect wave. While there he€™s recruited by a private security force who are trying to find a gang known as The Bush Administration, surfing outlaws and modern day pirates who work like €œThe Ex-Presidents,€ a bank robbing crew from Malibu twenty years ago.

Now that actually sounds like a plot that could work. The original Point Break is such an entertaining film that epitomized a certain filmic movement of the early 90's. It was certainly a big influence on De Bont's own career and let's not beat around the bush. It's one of the most entertaining films of the 90's. Now Jan De Bont was a pretty cool action director and I love what he did with Speed (even if everything else since was pretty lame) but he's got an awful lot to live up to in trying to match the greatness that was Kathryn Bigelow who directed some wonderful set pieces for the film...

Without Reeves and Swayze... I'm not sure I care. But getting them back could be an impossible task. I just don't think a Matt Dillon/Matthew McConaughey or if your going even younger... a Chris Evans (though I do like him actually)and Paul Walker partnership would excite me enough.