Hunter Killer has a release date, needs a director and a star

Relativity was so confident in their action-espionage movie HUNTER KILLER, they staked out a prime release date of December 21, 2012. Right now that month is also occupied by THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, DJANGO UNCHAINED, LIFE OF PI, WORLD WAR Z and (until recently) THE LONE RANGER.

We’ll see if the thriller still hits that target, since Moviehole now reports that director Phillip Noyce has departed the project after developing it since February. The site says that Noyce ultimately decided the material was “too close to other films he had already made” (possibly SALT and Jack Ryan movies CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and PATRIOT GAMES, or maybe… THE SAINT? Nah.). The filmmaker will apparently focus instead on a love story called TIMELESS or the thriller ABOVE SUSPICION.

HUNTER KILLER, based on the book “Firing Point,” follows an untested submarine captain who must work with a Navy SEAL team to rescue the Russian president, who has been taken prisoner during a military coup, in an effort to stop a rogue Russian General from igniting World War III.

Curiously, just before Moviehole’s report, Coming Soon circulated a rumor that Gerard Butler was being pursued for the role of the sub captain. But any casting now seems unlikely until a replacement director plants their buttocks behind the camera. (TAKEN director Pierre Morel was previously attached to the project.)

And because you may not find that update particularly stimulating, here’s a random sexy pic of Rosario Dawson.