Ryuhei Kitamura to Adapt Gun Monkeys

Ryuhei Kitamura’s first foray into Hollywood moviemaking didn’t exactly go as planned. While everyone who saw it loved (or at least, didn’t hate) it, his horror movie “Midnight Meat Train” was unceremoniously dumped into a few theaters to fulfill contractual obligations (but only after a long delay) before being exiled to DVD shelves. According to the guys at Quiet Earth, Kitamura won’t let the bad taste of “Midnight Meat Train” stop him from trying to conquer Hollywood yet again, because the “Versus” director is now attached to direct a movie called “Gun Monkeys” based on the book of the same name by Victor Gischler.

The plot of the book goes something like this:

Charlie Swift just pumped three .38-caliber bullets into a dead polar bear in his taxidermist girlfriend’s garage. But he’s a gun monkey, and no one can blame him for having an itchy trigger finger. Ever since he drove down the Florida Turnpike with a headless body in the trunk of a Chrysler, then took down four cops, Charlie’s been running hard through the sprawling sleaze of central Florida. And to make matters worse, he’s holding on to some crooked paperwork that a lot of people would like to take off his hands. Now, with his boss disappeared and his friends dropping like flies, Charlie has got his work cut out just to survive. If he wants to keep the money and get the girl too, he’s really going to have to go ape…

Although Quiet Earth doesn’t cite a source, they did mention that Lee Goldberg is writing the movie. Over at his blog, Goldberg confirms this back in March, including Kitamura being attached to the film. He also adds that two Major Hollywood Stars (he declines to mention them by name) have been circling the movie. That means things should pick up, including official announcements, once they land a bankable star.