Kimberly Elise
Kimberly Elise has joined the cast of MGM/Paramount’s “Death Wish” remake. Yes, “Death Wish” is being remade. It really shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, given how remake-happy Hollywood studios continue to be; maybe even more-so in recent years than ever before. MGM is especially *guilty* of this, mining its content library for titles to reboot/revive/remake/reimagining/etc. From “Ben-Hur,” to “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “RoboCop,” “Carrie,” “Poltergeist,” “WarGames,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “In the Heat of the Night,” and others.
A “Death Wish” remake is just a continuation of a trend.
Elise joins star Bruce Willis, who will play the role originated by the late Charles Bronson – Paul Keysey – in a remake that will be directed by Mr. Torture Porn himself, Eli Roth.
Kersey’s life, destroyed by a violent crime against his wife and daughter, takes the law into his own hands when the justice system fails him. It’s a relatively straightforward, no-holds-barred revenge/vigilante action-crime-drama. The original film, released in 1974, was loosely based on the 1972 novel “Death Wish” by Brian Garfield. It was a commercial hit, embraced by a public that was facing rising rates of crime during those years, who applauded Kersey’s vigilantism, and gave birth to a franchise for Bronson, who would star in 4 more “Death Wish” movies, released between 1982 and 1994; none of them could capture the magic of the first one, and each only got progressively worse.
Elise plays a Detective Jackson, one of the investigators looking into Kersey’s case.
Also in the cast is Mike Epps, who will play Dr. Chris Salgado, a playboy doctor and close friend of Paul Kersey.
Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris and Vincent D’Onofrio round out the key cast.
Production is taking place in Montreal and Chicago for a 2017 release.
Elise can next be seen in Universal’s “Almost Christmas” directed by David E. Talbert in theaters November 11. Elise is repped by APA and Untitled Entertainment.
The original “Death Wish” franchise of films is available on various home video formats (DVD, Bluray, VOD, etc). The first one is actually streaming on Amazon Prime for those who are subscribers.
