Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passamore penned the original draft of the remake of Red Dawn, originally written and directed by John Milius. But Latino Review reports that Tony Gilroy, Bourne writer and writer/director of Michael Clayton and Duplicity, has been brought on to rewrite the script. That report says his draft has already been turned in, and AICN follows up with a note that Ellsworth has already been tasked with tweaking Gilroy’s work. What a wonderful town you are, Hollywood.

The Red Dawn remake is to be directed by Dan Bradley, who worked with Gilroy on the Bourne films. Gilroy’s involvement is the first thing that has really ignited any interest in me for this film. He’s got a good sensibility that combines solid characters, political influence and an understanding of where action fits into a film. I’m still confused about how this version of the story is going to have any punch. Even with the option to parallel our conception of the insurgency in Iraq and build off various forms of current geo-political paranoia, you just can’t match the genuine concern that a lot of kids had during the Cold War, when red Dawn originally appeared. Then the notion of an imminent war that would affect US soil seemed so much more likely.

But there are those quotes that Devin at CHUD got from Ellsworth a few months ago, including the fact that they are actively drafting new versions of the script to keep track with current events. There’s a danger there of being too topical, sure, but the idea is that the film will take into account the current economic crisis, and potentially posit a sequence of events in which antagonistic nations who have an investment in US property and business take action to protect their captial. Ellsworth also insisted that the film would be an action-packed thing, rather than a movie that gets too bogged down in politics. I’ll be curious to see if the final product still shows traces of Gilroy’s influence.