by: Madison Barnes
Focus Features and Olive Bridge Entertainment are teaming up to remake the Swedish action film JACKPOT, which originally premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival back in 2012. The story focuses on a group of ex-cons who suddenly win a lottery ticket, but can’t collect because they’re mysteriously framed for a deadly strip-club murder. The film is a quirky comedy of errors, told in a twisting flashback mode (much like “The Usual Suspects”) and full of off-beat humor and gory violence.
Producers have chosen David Callaham to pen the American version, which will be an interesting task given that the film is derivative of another work by Swedish crime novelist Jo Nesbo. No word whether Callaham’s version will be based more on Nesbo’s story or the film, but writing it may prove tougher than it appears. Successfully mixing the elements of comedy and gore is an intricate balancing act, and Callaham must have a clear idea of what he wants to keep and what he wants to discard from his abundant source material.
Callaham is known for his writing credits on “The Expendables” and “The Expendables 2,” along with “Tell Tale” which was produced by Ridley Scott, and “Horseman” which starred Dennis Quaid. He usually sticks to the action/thriller genre, so this should be right up his alley. Callaham also provided music for the 1994 film “Blink,” and had an acting role in the film, as his talents seem to extend to more than one corner of the industry.
Will Gluck and Jodi Hildebrand are producing for Olive Bridge, and Josh McLaughlin will be overseeing for Focus. They seem to have bought the rights to a good film, as this could be really interesting if adapted the right way. I can already imagine Ewan McGregor in one of the roles (this kind of European quirky film just screams his name) and would love to see what the producers are thinking as far as casting.
Stay glued to the Tracking Board to find out which direction they go, as we’ll bring you all the latest info as soon as humanly possible!
