Beaks here...
Ugh. Seriously, I'd prefer a crappy remake of Martin Brest's MIDNIGHT RUN to a Brett Ratner-directed sequel written by studio hacks responsible for the ho-hum FOUR BROTHERS and the straight-up awful G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA.
Universal, on the other hand, desperately wants back in the Ratner business after the commercial disappointment of TOWER HEIST, and they're willing to tarnish one of the studio's best films of the last thirty years in order to re-up with the director. This is the good news coming from Deadline's Michael Fleming, who also reports that David Elliot and Paul Lovett have signed on to dishonor the indelible characters created by George Gallo back in 1988.
Unfortunately, Robert De Niro has already agreed to once again play Jack Walsh, the skip tracer who's unpopular with the Chicago police department. As for Charles Grodin, he's basically retired from acting (he hasn't appeared in a film since 2006's THE EX), but I could see him reprising his role as Jonathan Mardukas as a favor to De Niro.
Or perhaps Grodin will consider it insulting that Universal wouldn't bring back Gallo and Brest (even though the latter lost the studio a ton of money with MEET JOE BLACK), and politely decline. That would be nice. What would also be nice is if Universal made an effort to put together a sequel that's worthy of the title MIDNIGHT RUN. But that doesn't seem to be happening right now.
(Yes, I'm aware of the made-for-TV MIDNIGHT RUN movies starring Christopher McDonald. The obvious difference here is De Niro's involvement.)
