1st look at Bruce Willis in Looper, directed by Rian Johnson

There's a reason why Rian Johnson has such a rabid following, and it's only partially because he's such an open presence on the social networks. He takes pretty conventional genres and adds a nifty twist to them. Take his debut, Brick, a hard boiled neo-noir set at a high school. Or The Brothers Bloom, the most whimsical crime caper in years. I can only imagine what he'll do to the sci-fi genre with Looper, his star-studded flick involving crime syndicates in the future and plenty of time travel.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt joins up with Johnson for the third time(he briefly appeared on Bloom) as a mob hitman who kills victims sent to him from the future. Things get dicey when a future version of himself, played by Bruce Willis, turns up.  Empire has a brand new image which shows Willis in action, proving if anything that this will be much more violent film than anything Johnson's ever done. 

Johnson's gathered his most impressive cast yet for this one. Alongside JGL and Willis are Piper Perabo, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels, Garrett Dillahunt, and Tracie Thoms. Look for Looper to turn up some time in 2012.