Len Wiseman’s next?

Director Len Wiseman is certainly deserving of some credit. He’s got a successful movie franchise under his belt (regardless of what you think of the UNDERWORLD movies, they made cake), he just brought John McClane back to a $300+ million global box office, and he’s married to a spectacularly sexy actress. He’s even handsome. Bastard.

In fact, it sounds like New Line respects him so much that they’re giving him dibs on a couple of their major upcoming projects: their ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK remake and the adaptation of monster hit videogame GEARS OF WAR. Yes, possibly both — IESB says that the two projects (both of which are currently slated for 2009 release) would be part of a new overall deal for Mr. Beckinsale at the faltering studio.

ESCAPE has Gerard Butler attached to play infamous eyepatch-wearing antihero Snake Plissken, and GEARS tells of soldiers fighting back against an alien takeover on a distant world. Both have scripts in place, so if Wiseman’s involvement is true, expect at least one of them to get rolling in the upcoming months. With lots of blue filters.