Per THR, Shane Black is developing a big-screen adaptation of Don Pendleton’s The Executioner book series for Sony Pictures, and this one has been a looong time coming.
The Executioner
The Executioner was a pulpy series of action novels by Don Pendleton, centring on Mack Bolan, who fought organized crime and international terrorism. The initial novels were written by Pendleton, but he later licensed them to ghostwriters, which led to the series coming out twice a month at its height and totalling 464 books by the time it ended in 2020. Holy shit.
Black will write the script with Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, and he may direct the project as well. Joel Silver will produce alongside Angry Films’ Don Murphy and Susan Montford.
As I mentioned above, Hollywood has been trying to get this project off the ground for quite some time. At one point, William Friedkin was developing an adaptation with Sylvester Stallone playing Mack Bolan (that would have been interesting), and Burt Reynolds and Steve McQueen had also been attached at certain points.
Black’s Last Movie
It took Black a little longer than I would have liked to return with a new movie after the failure of The Predator, but he finally did with Play Dirty. The film debuted on Prime Video last year.
Based on Donald E. Westlake’s The Hunter, Play Dirty stars Mark Wahlberg as Parker, a professional thief, who, after being double-crossed and left for dead, sees his hunt for revenge bring with it a shot at the biggest heist of his career. But even with the help of his partner, actor-slash-con artist Grofield, he’ll still need to outsmart a South American dictator, the New York mob, and the world’s richest man if he hopes to stay alive.
Unfortunately, Play Dirty wasn’t the grand return to form that fans were hoping for. The film received mixed reviews, but our own Alex Maidy found enough to enjoy. “Had this movie been a straight heist thriller with comedic elements, it likely would have worked better, but that does not prevent the film from being a fun ride,” he wrote. “Black has always had a knack for dialogue that crackles, and there is plenty of that in Play Dirty. The best moments in the film come from the rapid-fire back-and-forth between characters, especially the leading trio of Wahlberg, Salazar, and Stanfield. But witty one-liners and comebacks only get you so far when the plot is virtually impossible to make sense of.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
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