Joel Schumacher to Direct Breaking News Remake

Go figure, I didn’t even know Joel Schumacher had a viable movie career after burying the Batman franchise with rubber nipples and primary colored sets. But apparently he’s still working in the biz, because he’s currently in negotiations to direct the Hollywood remake of Johnnie To’s crime thriller “Breaking News”, according to The Hollywood Reporter. I liked the action/chase aspect of the original “Breaking News”, but the cop-versus-media part was just sometimes too silly to take too seriously.

The story is set in motion when a TV news unit broadcasts live an embarrassing defeat of a police battalion by five bank robbers in a ballistic showdown. While on a separate investigation and stakeout in a run-down building, a detective discovers the hideout of the robbers. But the situation is complicated by an inspector who, in order to beat the media at its own game, decides to turn the stakeout into a breaking-news show.

Alex de Rakoff is writing the script for the movie, which will be produced by Gold Circle’s Paul Brooks.

A couple of scenes from the original: