SWAT is finally moving forward... but it isn't the project we once knew...

Hey there grunts, Harry here... Since October of 1997, AICN has been following the feature film project based upon the ol classic TV show... S.W.A.T. Our original interest in the project came from the fact I was a fan of the original show. Fave episode? OFFICER LUCA, YOU'RE DEAD. Renny Harlin was thinking about it once. Roger Spottiswoode Music Video director Marcus Nispel was attached for awhile, but was allegedly fired for not having a grasp of the 'american action genre' whatever the hell that is. We've had Tommy Lee Jones and Ed Harris approached to play Hondo (you know which character that is... sheesh), then Ahnuldt signed aboard and that's where the project started going to hell.

You see, for a long time Sony had one of the best hands down Action scripts I've read in the 5 years I've been doing this written by Ron Mita and Jim McClain. What was so great about it? Well first off it was a great ensemble action script... Remember how the unit worked in GUNS OF NAVARONE or PREDATOR? How they moved as one? How, though Gregory Peck and Arnold Schwarzeneggar were the stars of those respective films, neither truly dominated... How the films were more than the STAR? That was this script... a lean and mean mixture of STAGECOACH and ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 though nowhere near being derivative of either film.

So what happened to Mita and McClain's script? A series of 'AHNULDT' drafts... to focus the script more upon Ahnuldt. To make him the obvious Uber-Man. Suddenly the script began to fall apart. Every writer in the biz became attached at some point or another. Each draft pushing further away from where it once was.

Then when Tri-Star folded and Chris Lee was removed as acting President... the project became fairly rudderless. Arnold's option finally lapsed, and instead of getting rid of all the terrible rewrites and returning to that amazing Mita/McClain draft... Hollywood, a creature with no memory, decided to press forward.

Apparently screenwriter David Ayer (U571 and FAST AND THE FURIOUS and the upcoming TRAINING DAY) has a history of military and cop orientated projects (including several still in development), but his job was to turn SWAT into a more youth driven action flick. And today, Variety has anounced that Paul Walker (PLEASANTVILLE & THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS) is attached to star. I'm just praying that he isn't Hondo, because Hondo isn't supposed to be twentysomething baby you make me so wet hot looking. Hondo is supposed to be a longterm leader of a SWAT unit. Not a scrub. I'll be digging around for this Ayer draft to give you folks a clue if Sony has screwed the pooch or hit a homerun... personally, that Mita and McClain script was the diamond. But hey, fine... spend more money on useless development of a project ready to shoot 4 years ago. Sigh...