fathers-and-guns

Legendary producing couple Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy have set their sights on remaking this summer’s French-Canadian hit, Fathers and Guns (released as De Pere en flic). The plot concerns a father and son, both cops, who seemingly hate each other. Of course, they get assigned to work an investigation at a group therapy camp for fathers and sons—hilarity ensues. Sony Pictures has already picked up the project due to Marshall and Kennedy’s involvement, but there’s no writer or director assigned yet.

According to THR, the film has gathered all sorts of acclaim in Canada:

It beat out “Bruno” on opening weekend, took in two-thirds of the summer’s ticket sales in French-language films in Quebec and out-grossed Hollywood fare by more than a 50% margin. It is now the highest-grossing French-language film ever released in Quebec and Canada.

The concept is simple enough that it wouldn’t be too difficult to find pretty much any writer and director for this project, but ideally I would love to see Shane Black tackle it, if only because this is totally his territory. Black basically started the buddy cop film trend with Lethal Weapon, and he proved he’s still got talent with the recent Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The only future project he seems to have lined up is Lethal Weapon 5 (seriously), and that won’t be going anywhere for a few years. I’d rather the guy tackle a remake rather than fall into obscurity once again.

The material certainly wouldn’t be too difficult for Black, and it would put him in good producer company so that he doesn’t spend another several years letting his talents go to waste. And let’s face it, he’s among the few directors that knows this genre, and would do something good with it.

[Via First Showing]

  • Québec really does make the best films in this country.

    The trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrFN5B_7-9U
  • maherjimmy
    In french the title dont use the word 'guns'. they use it for americans to help them understand the movie.. with some guns its easier for them to feel better in the cinema.
    Tea Bags
  • smumdax
    Hum...... Actually, the french title is a wordplay on "from father to son", replacing "son" with a soundalike word related to cops.

    The english versions simply kept that wordplay concept. I don't think using the word gun is a marketing tactic because americans love guns. I think it's a simple wordplay, nothing more...
  • This film sounds like pure comedy. I'm gonna Netflix the original. Thanks, /Film!
  • themoviedoc
    I'm from Quebec. Actually, the story is about a father and a son who have real issues but they pretend to go to a therapy camp in the woods so they can get the lawyer of the biggest gangster in the country to confess about his crimes. They spend more than half of the movie in the woods doing father/son group therapy. It doesn't sound fun ? That's because it's a decent flick, but nothing more

    Frank Marshall doesn't understand why this movie is so popular : there was nothing good in theaters when it was released and Louis-José Houde is quite popular as a comedian. Other than that, I don't really know someone who REALLY loved the movie.

    Black would be too good for this movie, trust me. He shouldn't waste his talent on De père en flic !
  • Twisted
    I agree with themoviedoc.

    Louis-José Houde is a very succeful stand-up comedian here in Québec and I think it's the main reason why the movie sell so well.

    Why American producers are interested by De Père En Flic? I have no clue. Past summer, the movie Bon Cop Bad Cop (similar theme of the cop comedy) break some records at the Box Office and wasn't end up being remade at Hollywood.
  • XBudd
    Being one of the few (on /Film) who actually saw the original, I have to agree with themoviedoc and Twisted and say that this was a VERY average movie to say the least.

    But as much as I dread the idea of having to go through that story again (I work in a movie theater so there's no avoiding it), I find some comfort in the fact that what was horribly wrong with "De Père en Flic" was the screenplay's execution and the acting. I'm pretty confident that you can make a fairly entertaining movie with the same premise; just hire real actors, give them more to do than an hour-long stand up routine, and for God's sake, try not to disregard your McGuffin so shamelessly as soon as the therapy starts.

    They go through so much trouble establishing how important it is for the father/son team to go undercover so that they can rescue their kidnapped partner, but once the "fun" starts, you barely see him again. It reminded my of Wesley Snipes' brother in "Drop Zone" and that's never the sort of comparison you want to elicit.
  • yafortier
    As mentionned before : we're really a micro-society and we tend to encourage our home grown films a lot.
  • Tercotta
    Unlike the rest of Canada that supports home grown films by never going to see them.
  • smumdax
    I saw "De Père en Flic" a couple days ago. I liked it, but last years movie "Bon Cop Bad Cop" was much better and funnier. However, I think the reason why BCBC (lol) wasn't picked up by Hollywood is because ths movie is mostly about the whole quebecers/rest-of-canada differences on a hockey background. There is A LOT of cultural jokes, only Canadians and Quebecers can understand, and I don't think this kind of distinct cultural and language separation exists in the US... I could be wrong, but still the Father/Son premise look more easily adaptable...

    In one of our main newspaper, the movie's director said that he'd like to see Tom Hanks and Shiah Lebeouf in the lead roles........... not sure about that either.
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