Second Time’s a Charm?

It may well be true, as Cinematical’s Scott Weinberg asserts, that few people remember the 1981 movie The Amateur, starring John Savage, Christopher Plummer, Marthe Keller, and Arthur Hill. (I must count myself among the forgetful majority.) But actor Hugh Jackman wants filmgoers to think better of the forthcoming version of The Amateur, since his production company is behind the venture, and he’s planning to star in this second big-screen adaptation of Robert Littell’s 1981 novel.

The story line, according to Variety, focuses on “a CIA cryptographer whose fiancée is killed in a suspicious plane crash. When he discovers that the plane was brought down by terrorists, he finds the leverage that forces his bosses to train him to exact revenge.” Jackman hopes that the plot is compelling enough to generate a spy film franchise every bit as lucrative as those featuring James Bond, Jack Ryan, and Jason Bourne. To help raise the odds of that, Jackman and his business partner, John Palermo, have hired Evan Katz, an executive producer with the high-octane, high-drama American TV series 24, to pen the screenplay for this new Amateur. In hopes that nobody will associate their revamped tale (which will likely abandon the Cold War backdrop of Littell’s novel in favor of today’s post-9/11 world) with the previous John Savage’s The Amateur, Cinematical says “the new producers are insisting that this is NOT a remake, but a new adaptation of the same source material.” Gee, OK.

Jackman is a fine performer with a broad range of talents (see Kate & Leopold versus X-Men: The Last Stand), so I expect he’ll do an at least passable job in the role of mathematician and CIA code specialist Charles Heller. However, there already seems to be an abundance of spy films churning out of Hollywood, most of them lousy--depending on explosions and other action to sell tickets, rather than emotional or psychological substance. I, for one, would much prefer to see Jackman take on a project that succeeds or fails based on acting prowess, rather than gunplay. Too bad Will Smith is already planning to make a film based on the old Robert Wagner TV series It Takes a Thief. I can much more easily see Jackman donning a tux and cryptic smile as professional burglar-turned-reluctant spy Alexander Mundy, than I can Smith.