Kim Ji-Woon to Bring Ed Brubaker's 'Coward' to the Big Screen

This year hasn't been so kind to South Korean auteurs making their American debuts. Park Chan-Wook's Stoker packed a starry cast but was a comical misfire that just looked really good. Bong Joon-Ho's Snowpiercer could be great but is facing the potential wrath of Harvey Scissorhands. But I Saw the Devil director Kim Ji-Woon was hit the hardest as his Arnold Schwarzenegger-led action flick The Last Stand wasn't just excoriated by critics, audiences acted as if it didn't even exist. Kim isn't letting that slow him down for long, though, as he's taking on a promising project from one of comics' most acclaimed writers.

Kim will direct Coward, based on the first of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Eisner Award-winning Criminal series. A couple of years ago Brubaker, who adapted the screenplay himself, was set to bring it to the big screen with David Slade (Hard Candy) at the helm. That fell through, and now it's Ji-Woon taking over. Read the comic now and you'll notice numerous similarities to Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, at least in terms of the main character Leo and the story's overall tone. Here's the official plot description:

"Coward is the story of Leo, a professional pickpocket who is also a legendary heist-planner and thief. But there's a catch with Leo, he won't work any job that he doesn't call all the shots on, he won't allow guns, and the minute things turn south, he's looking for any exit that won't land him in prison. But when he's lured into a risky heist, all his rules go out the window, and he ends up on the run from the cops and the bad men who double-crossed him. Now Leo must come face-to-face with the violence he's kept bottled up inside for 20 years, and nothing will ever be the same for him again."

No word on when this could roll but it's exciting to see Kim going in the complete opposite direction of the wildly over-the-top The Last Stand. [Variety]