Robert Schwentke to breathe life Back into R.I.P.D.?

It was only last week I posted a story of Terminator Salvation director McG looking to direct R.I.P.D but it seems he has decided to opt to stay with romantic comedy This Means War (starring Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine), so the search restarts again. The search may not take that long as Los Angeles Times are reporting that the Time Traveller’s Wife director Robert Schwentke is now been lined up to direct R.I.P.D the project first had David Dobkin (wedding Crashers) onboard.

It’s been a busy time for the German director whose Hollywood breakthrough was the 2005 movie ( Jodie Foster) Flightplan but he is putting the final touches to RED (a comicbook by Warren Ellis) the action comedy for Summit  which stars Bruce Willis soon to start promotion. R.I.P.D is just one of the many projects the director has been linked with recently which includes a adaptation of the Robert Ludlum thriller The Osterman Weekend and the underwater adventure Shadow Divers.

Like RED, R.I.P.D will be an adaptation of a graphic novel from DarkHorse with in demand actor  for comic book movies Ryan Reynolds been lined up to play the lead role and this project has been top priority for Universal and Darkhorse for sometime now.With buzz of RED building quite a bit (if your a regular on this blog you’ll know we’re excited to see this this) is helping Schwentke reputation quite a bit (something McG needs after Terminator Salvation).

R.I.P.D is based on the story of cop shot down on patrol and is given another chance to patrol the underworld and hunt down his killers by giving 100years service in return. Universal want things to start as quickly as possible as this movie will be heavy effect  based movie but the actual filming may not start until next summer when Reynolds has a free schedule.

If Schwentke is successfull landing this gig its another possible sign in what direction the director maybe heading as in action movie director after the Time Travellers Wife love story but R.I.P.D story will be alot more darker than what he has made before. It’s said Schwentke really does admire the source material but its common knowledge that sometimes actors and director will turn down good movies in the order to work with other actors or directors and with Ryan Reynolds onboard that could be the edge Schwentke wants.

source L.A TIMES